President Mbeki Jets Into Zimbabwe for Crisis Talks

President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa jetted into Zimbabwe on Wednesday for a meeting with President Robert Mugabe over the ongoing political deadlock threatening to explode into a regional crisis.

The South African leader, who is the Southern African Development Community (SADC)’s mediator on Zimbabwe, landed in the capital Harare at noon and immediately went into discussions with his country’s ambassador to Zimbabwe, Mlungisi Makhalima.

Following the meeting, Mbeki proceeded to Zimbabwe’s second city of Bulawayo to see Mugabe who is campaigning in the southern Matabeleland provincial capital.

Observers here said Mbeki would use the meeting with Mugabe to press for a level playing field ahead of a presidential election run-off on June 27 against opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader, Morgan Tsvangirai.

Human rights groups and the MDC have accused Mugabe’s ZANU PF party of launching a violent campaign after losing the first round of polls to the opposition in March.

The MDC says at least 66 of its supporters have been murdered and thousands others displaced in the past two months.

Source African Press Agency

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