Harare – Zimbabwe’s ex-president Robert Mugabe has reportedly sent a message of condolences to the family of his former health minister Dr Timothy Stamps, who died on Sunday.

According to the state-owned broadcaster ZBC, the nonagenarian said that Stamps had contributed immensely in the fight against chronic diseases which included HIV and Aids while he was the minister of health.

This was the first time that Mugabe had been heard from since his resignation last week.

The former president said that they both had strived to build a hospital in every district of the southern African country, adding that the late Stamps was a “social and affable individual who related well with colleagues as much as he did with everyone else”.

Mugabe said that he was happy that Stamps had been declared a national hero.

The Herald newspaper reported earlier this week that Stamps had been declared a national hero by the ruling Zanu-PF politburo, two days after his death on November 26.

Zanu-PF secretary for Finance Obert Mpofu announced the decision at the Stamps family home in Goromonzi on Tuesday.

He died at the Borrowdale Trauma Centre from a lung infection.