Mugabe discusses crisis with South Africa’s Mbeki
South African President Thabo Mbeki met Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Saturday to try to help end a political crisis after a violent election that extended Mugabe’s 28-year rule.
The main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, said its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, had declined to meet Mbeki, who has tried to mediate between the two sides.
Tsvangirai and his party have criticized Mbeki, accusing him of siding with Mugabe, and have asked the African Union to send an envoy to help with negotiations.
Mugabe said he supported Mbeki’s mediation effort, but he has remained defiant in the face of growing condemnation from Western governments and even African neighbors since his disputed re-election June 27.
“It is the view of the facilitators and the Zimbabwean leadership that we need to move with speed,” Mbeki told reporters after a brief meeting with Mugabe and Arthur Mutambara, who leads a breakaway faction of the MDC.
Mugabe said Friday that the MDC must drop its claim to power and accept him as the rightful head of state.
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