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Mugabe awaits Mbeki for last-minute talks before SADC summit

Other News Materials 12 April 2008 15:01 (UTC +04:00)

(dpa) - South African President Thabo Mbeki was on his way to the Zimbabwean capital Harare Saturday for talks with embattled President Robert Mugabe ahead of a summit of southern African leaders in Zambia later Saturday to discuss the Zimbabwean crisis.

Mugabe's motorcade was spotted at Harare airport Saturday morning where sources in the Zimbabwean president's office confirmed to Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa Mbeki was due to arrive shortly for talks with Mugabe before the Southern African Development Community (SADC) meeting in Lusaka.

Mugabe is boycotting the extraordinary SADC summit which Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa called to try to resolve the impasse between Mugabe's Zanu-PF party and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change over March 29 elections.

Two weeks after Zimbabweans voted on their president for the next five years the state-controlled Zimbabwe Electoral Commission is refusing to release the results.

The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) claims Tsvangirai, who is attending the Lusaka summit, won outright. Mugabe's party claims neither Tsvangirai nor Mugabe took more than 50 per cent of the vote and that a second round of voting is required.

Mbeki was appointed by SADC as mediator in Zimbabwe a year ago and helped create the conditions for the relatively peaceful but flawed elections.

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