Former president Jerry John Rawlings has furiously dragged a newscaster on Ghana's National Television broadcaster, GTV for describing Robert Mugabe with unpalatable adjectives.

The statesman expressed his disgust after a news reader on GTV tagged the late former Zimbabwean president as a rebel leader.

Mr Rawlings in a social media post on Thursday night, September 12, 2019 said the unmentioned GTV news anchor made the statement on Wednesday, September 11.

Though he said he has not lost sight of the “disproportionate influence” of some western countries over the local media, he said it was shocking and disheartening for the news anchor to denigrate such an African freedom fighter.

“…to hear the news reader on GTV yesterday refer to the late Mugabe, a former freedom fighter and leader as a rebel leader, was not only shocking but truly disheartening” he tweeted.

“A rebel leader?” he asked rhetorically, stating it was “unbelievable” to hear that from the mouth of a Ghanaian news reader on a national television.

Mugabe died in Singapore aged 95.

Mugabe had been battling ill-health and President Emmerson Mnangagwa told a Cabinet meeting two weeks ago that doctors had “taken him off life support.”

He became the first prime minister of the newly independent Zimbabwe after elections in February 1980.

Articulate and smartly dressed, Mugabe came to power commanding the respect of a nation. He had a strong head start, inheriting a country with a stable economy, solid infrastructure and vast natural resources.

Mugabe, ousted from power in a military coup in November 2017, was being treated in Singapore since April.