Former Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe is still hospitalised in Singapore and is regaining steadily, his predecessor Emmerson Mnangagwa said, Monday.
There have been concerns about the health of the 95-year-old nonagenarian, with initial reports indicating that he was unable to speak.
Mugabe, who was the South African nation's president, has been in hospital for four months now, with the state saying that he's also unable to walk.
At the conference on Monday, Mnangagwa also that the state is concerned with the health of the former president and that they are monitoring him.
"Founding president and founding father of our nation (comrade) Robert Mugabe remains detained at a hospital in Singapore where he is receiving medical attention,” Mnangagwa said.
"Unlike in the past when the former president would require just about a month for this, his physicians this time around determined that he be kept under observation for much longer from April this year when he left for his latest routine check-up."
Mnangagwa, who announced in November last year that Mugabe was now unable to walk because of ill-health and old age, said he had sent a team, including chief secretary to cabinet Misheck Sibanda, to Singapore last week to check on the former ruler.
"I am greatly pleased to inform the nation that the former president continues to make steady progress towards eventual recovery and that his condition is remarkably stable for his age," Mnangagwa said.
The team that visited Mugabe reported that he was "responding well to treatment" and that "because of the good progress he is making (comrade) Mugabe could be released fairly soon."
Mnangagwa took over through a bloodless coup in 2017, forcing Mugabe to be confined to his home. The military was against the idea of him having his wife, Grace Mugabe as successor.