Speculation over the health of the Zimbabwean president, Robert Mugabe, resurfaced today as a press report claimed he was being treated in a Dubai hospital following a "serious scare".
The Times of South Africa said the 85-year-old – who has not been seen in public since last Tuesday, when he returned from Namibia – had been secretly taken for treatment.
His daughter, Bona, is said to have travelled from Hong Kong to Dubai to be with him.
Zimbabwean officials immediately dismissed the report, calling it the product of "sick and evil minds".
"The president is not sick, but was away on holiday," one told the Associated Press. "He returned home yesterday, and those reports are a load of rubbish."
Journalists in Zimbabwe also played down the rumours, saying Mugabe often travelled abroad for health check-ups, but said all eyes will now be on a visit by the South African president, Jacob Zuma, tomorrow.
Sources in the ruling Zanu-PF party have said Mugabe will greet Zuma but if he fails to appear, speculation over his health will intensify.
The Times of South Africa quoted "well-placed sources" as saying Mugabe had been unwell at the weekend and was undergoing specialist treatment.
The paper said it was believed he was being treated by a Malaysian urologist, Awang Kechik, who has treated him for a prostate condition for years. Mugabe has never confirmed rumours that he has prostate cancer.
Some of his colleagues in the Zanu-PF politburo claimed they "do not know where the president is", the Times of South Africa said.
Mugabe missed the recent burial of his long-time comrade in the liberation struggle, Senator Richard Hove, a politburo member. The acting president, Joice Mujuru, presided over the ceremony.
Mugabe is the oldest member of Zimbabwe's government following the death of the vice-president, Joseph Msika, earlier this month.
At Msika's state funeral, Mugabe said that the "grim reaper" was insatiable. The president made a robust speech, but later looked drained as he embarked on a long walkabout.
Regional sections of Zanu-PF recently voted Mugabe their "supreme leader", and it is far from clear who would succeed him in the event of his death.
Potential replacements include Mujuru and the defence minister, Emmerson Mnangagwa, but some analysts have predicted potential anarchy.
Tendai Biti, the finance minister in the unity government, said the unresolved question of succession within Zanu-PF posed the biggest threat to peace and stability in Zimbabwe. Morgan Tsvangirai, the country's prime minister, has remarked that Mugabe must be seen as part of the solution to that uncertainty.