Zimbabwe Officials Prevent Opposition From Traveling to SADC Summit

Zimbabwe’s main opposition Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai was barred on Thursday from traveling to South Africa to attend a regional summit where the country’s political crisis is expected to top the agenda, his party said.

Tsvangirai had his passport and those of two other officials from his MDC confiscated by security details when they checked in at Harare International Airport for a flight to South Africa.

Tsvangirai was due to travel with the MDC’s secretary general Tendai Biti and the party’s international relations secretary Elphas Mukonoweshuro to Johannesburg where they were to present their party’s position to leaders of the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

The passports were later returned but by that time the flight had already left for South Africa.

Stalled Zimbabwe unity talks are expected to dominate proceedings during the two-day SADC heads of state and government summit scheduled for the weekend (16-17 August) in South Africa.

Tsvangirai said he had been invited by the South African government to attend the SADC summit and that Pretoria had in fact paid for the air tickets for his entourage.

The opposition leader is locked in a bitter battle with President Robert Mugabe for control of Zimbabwe and has refused to sign a power-sharing agreement with the veteran Zimbabwean leader until he is assured of sweeping powers in a proposed unity government.

Source African Press Agency

Net News Publisher