(Recasts with president’s quotes, adds kwacha)
LUSAKA, March 10 (Reuters) – Newly elected Zambian president “Edgar Lungu” said on Tuesday he will travel to South Africa for further “medical tests” after a suspected narrowing of the food pipe caused him to fall ill over the weekend.
Lungu, 58, was discharged from the hospital on Monday where he had been receiving treatment after feeling unwell while at an International Women’s Day event in the capital on Sunday.
Lungu assumed the helm of Africa’s second-largest copper producer in January after winning a narrow victory in an election to replace former leader Michael Sata, who died in October aged 77 while undergoing treatment in London.
I am feeling much better but I have to go to South Africa this afternoon. I need to go for further tests and then if there will be need for other procedures such as surgery they will tell us, Lungu told reporters on Tuesday.
I hope to come back alive, no one wants to die, he added, laughing.
Doctors had advised Lungu to undergo specialist treatment abroad to correct the narrowing of the food pipe, which was a recurring condition.
Zambia’s kwacha shed over 1 percent against U.S. dollar on Tuesday as concerns over Lungu’s health weighed on market sentiment.
With two of the presidents dying in office in recent years things are a little jittery, said Zambia analyst Irmgard Erasmus at NKC Independent Economists. (Reporting by Chris Mfula; Writing by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo; Editing by James Macharia)