African leaders urged to die at home and cut usual health smokescreen of "undisclosed illness"

JOHANNESBURG: When dying Zambian president Michael Sata flew to London last week he was following a long line of African leaders who have sought emergency -- and secret -- medical treatment in foreign hospitals most of their citizens can only dream of.

With Ebola exposing the poor state of the continent's healthcare systems, and mobile phones and social media undermining official attempts to control and suppress information, many Africans were unimpressed.