Mugabe was visiting Soweto, heartland of the anti- apartheid struggle, yesterday on the final day of his state visit to South Africa when he approached a group of reporters.
But after apparently spotting an unwelcome face, he suddenly turned on his heel with the brusque remark: "I don't want to see a white man".
Mugabe's comments were caught by South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) cameras as he left a memorial museum for the 1976 student uprising in Soweto.
Mugabe, 91, regularly throws barbs at western nations and former colonial powers.
He used a press conference with President Jacob Zuma on Wednesday to attack the UN security council, the United States and Britain.
Mugabe's two-day trip was his first state visit to South Africa in more than two decades.
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