Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has left Harare for Singapore for a routine medical check-up, a report says.

According to The Herald, Mugabe was expected back in the country at the weekend "in time for the burial of national hero, Retired Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku", who died in South Africa last week.

The 93-year-old was in the South East Asian city state earlier this year - just after his February birthday celebrations - for what officials again claimed to be a routine check-up.

His trip on Monday came just a few days after he insisted while attending the World Economic Forum on Africa, in Durban, that Zimbabwe was the most highly developed country in Africa, after South Africa.

"Zimbabwe is the most highly developed country in Africa. After South Africa, I want to see another country as highly developed," Mugabe was quoted as saying at the time.