Mbeki, Mugabe scheduled to meet
2008-06-18 14:53
Special Report
Four Chinese men face deportation from Zimbabwe after they were arrested for killing more than 40 tortoises for meat, a report says.
A dusty road leads to the village of Wedza, where veterans of Zimbabwe's liberation war eke out a meagre living on their farm cooperative, which after a promising start now brings only despair.
Harare - South African President Thabo Mbeki arrived in Zimbabwe on Wednesday to meet with his counterpart Robert Mugabe ahead of next week's presidential run-off poll here, government sources said.
Mbeki arrived in the capital Harare just before 13:00 and was meeting with the South African ambassador, sources from both the South African and Zimbabwean governments said.
Later he was to travel to the southwestern city of Bulawayo to meet with Mugabe, the sources said.
South African foreign ministry spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa said earlier Mbeki would meet the Zimbabwean leader "in continuation of his SADC-mandated facilitation process".
The South African president, appointed to mediate Zimbabwe's crisis by the 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC), had often come under fire for his policy of quiet diplomacy towards the neighbouring country.
Violence had mounted in Zimbabwe ahead of the June 27 run-off election, in which opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai was seeking to topple Mugabe's 28-year rule.
Last week, Mbeki said that levels of violence in Zimbabwe were a cause for "serious concern and should be addressed with all urgency".
But his reluctance to publicly criticise Mugabe had infuriated Tsvangirai, who had called for him to be stripped of his role as mediator.
According to the MDC, more than 60 of its supporters had been killed since the first round of the election at the end of March, in which Mugabe's ruling party lost control of parliament for the first time since independence.
Tsvangirai defeated Mugabe in the first round, but with an official vote total just short of an outright majority.
- AFP