Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader has urged the South African president to end his “quiet support” of President Robert Mugabe.

At a news conference in Johannesburg, Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the main faction of the Movement for Democratic Change, urged President Thabo Mbeki to show “a little courage” in dealing with the Zimbabwe crisis.

In Harare, former Zimbabwean finance minister and one-time Mugabe ally Simba Makoni called on officials from Zimbabwe’s ruling ZANU-PF party to join his campaign to oust the 83-year-old president in the March 29 elections.

Mr Makoni’s recent entry into the presidential election has opened up what observers thought would be a two-person race between Mr Mugabe and Mr Tsvangirai at a time when the South African leader is mediating talks between the ZANU-PF and two MDC factions.

President Mbeki, widely criticised for taking too soft a stance on Mr Mugabe’s autocratic rule, agreed to intervene in the crisis last year at the urging of the Southern African Development Community, a grouping of 14 nations.

“We need to see a little courage from Mr Thabo Mbeki,” Mr Tsvangirai said. “He can break with his policy of quiet support of the dictatorship in Zimbabwe.”

Mr Tsvangirai was among dozens of anti-Mugabe activists who were arrested and beaten by police at an aborted rally in Harare last year. The crackdown prompted international calls for an end to Mugabe’s 27-year rule and spurred Mr Mbeki’s intervention.

But the talks sputtered and reached an impasse recently over disagreement on whether to introduce constitutional changes ahead of the elections next month. Mr Mugabe is running for another five-year term as president.

“He (Mbeki) owes it to our common African humanity, he owes it to his own legacy, he owes it to his own people, he owes it to those (Zimbabweans) who are streaming across the river looking for jobs (and) security in the towns here in South Africa,” Mr Tsvangirai added.

An estimated 4,000 Zimbabweans cross into neighbouring South Africa each day to look for food and work amid a deep economic crisis that has turned once-prosperous Zimbabwe into one of the continent’s poorest nations. ITN

Share This