afrol News, 4 November - Southern Africa regional leaders will hold a summit in South Africa on Sunday to unravel Zimbabwe's political crisis in forming a unity government, Foreign Ministry confirmed today.

President Robert Mugabe and main opposition party led by Morgan Tsvangirai are deadlocked over cabinet positions in a power-sharing government deal signed on 15 September.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa confirmed that 15-nation Southern African Development Community SADC will meet on Zimbabwe crisis on Sunday.

MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa also confirmed Mr Tsvangirai would attend summit in South Africa, saying opposition party expected SADC to increase pressure on president Mugabe.

"Mr Tsvangirai will be going to the meeting, and we hope that the summit will help to break the impasse. SADC has to use its leverage, especially on Mr Mugabe to see sense and to see that people are suffering," Mr Chamisa said.

Rebound summit on Sunday aims to bring together all leaders of Southern Africa to save power-sharing deal, seen as the best hope for ending months of political turmoil and halting Zimbabwe's stunning economic collapse.

"We are expecting the equitable distribution of key ministries. The people are suffering and we should start acting to make sure we alleviate the problems facing the people," Mr Nelson Chamisa said of the weekend's talks.

The heads of state of Mozambique, Swaziland and Angola, who form SADC's security council and Zimbabwean political parties, failed last month to secure a breakthrough in talks on the formation of Zimbabwe's cabinet.

President Ian Khama of Botswana, one of the region's toughest critics of Mr Mugabe, on Monday called for an internationally supervised rerun of the presidential poll in Zimbabwe.

"We strongly believe that the one viable way forward in Zimbabwe is to have a rerun of presidential election under full international sponsorship and supervision," he said.

He said a repeat of past run-off presidential election is critical, which was widely condemned by regional and international observers and was also characterised by intimidation and violence.

Mr Tsvangirai won the first-round presidential vote in March, when his MDC gained a majority in Parliament, forcing Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF into the minority for the first time since independence in 1980.

But Tsvangirai pulled out of a June run-off, accusing Mugabe's regime of orchestrating attacks that left more than 100 of his supporters dead.

Amnesty International released a report last week that found a total of 180 people had been killed and about 9 000 injured in political violence since March, most of them MDC.

Meanwhile, inter-state defence and security committee (ISDSC) Troika will be meeting in Maputo, Republic of Mozambique on 05 November 05, 2008, where senior officials are already meeting from Monday to prepare agenda of Ministerial Troika.

The ISDSC Troika is meeting to prepare recommendations to SADC Extra Ordinary Summit held to specifically deal with current developments in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and political situation in Zimbabwe.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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