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The leader of Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) warned South African President Thabo Mbeki that failure to resolve the crisis in Zimbabwe would cast a shadow over the 2010 Football World Cup. Tsvangirai, whose recent beating in police custody prompted an international outcry, was speaking in Johannesburg days after 83-year-old President Robert Mugabe received the backing of his party for a further six years in office. Africans were proud at the selection of South Africa to host the 2010 World Cup, he said, but warned: "That pride will turn to shame if the World Cup is blighted by the inability of Africans to solve the Zimbabwe crisis." An extraordinary summit of southern African leaders in Tanzania called to discuss the recent crackdown on the political opposition in Zimbabwe appointed Mbeki to mediate between Mugabe's ZANU-PF and the MDC. The Southern African Development Community (SADC) leaders also urged Western countries to lift their sanctions on Zimbabwe and castigated Britain for failing to meet "commitments" on the financing of land reform in its former colony. Tsvangirai described as "encouraging" the summit outcome, pointing to the commitment given by Mugabe at the summit to hold elections in 2008 and the issuing of Mbeki with a "new, regional mandate" to tackle Zimbabwe's problems. The appointment of Mbeki as the region's point man in Zimbabwe came despite the failure of years of South African-style "quiet diplomacy" with Harare to halt the country's slide into economic chaos and authoritarianism. The effects of Zimbabwe's crippling 1,730 per cent inflation rate and estimated 80 per cent unemployment are being acutely felt in South Africa, where thousands of illegal Zimbabweans flee each month in perilous conditions. Last week ZANU-PF's central committee overwhelmingly backed Mugabe's candidacy in presidential elections to be held alongside early parliamentary polls in 2008. Tsvangirai repeated that the MDC would only contest "free and fair elections" held under a new democratic constitution. © 2007 DPA |
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