Originally published by the Voice of America (www.voanews.com).
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August 9, 2008

South African President to Meet With Mugabe, Tsvangirai 
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http://enews.voanews.com/t?ctl=1D9E1A1:A6F02AD83191E160C3B5A339C75AE0C05C6F54A6CF9DC2CA&
 
Thabo Mbeki has been mediating between Mr. Mugabe's ZANU-PF party and
opposition Movement for Democratic Change 
South African President Thabo Mbeki is due in Zimbabwe Saturday to meet
with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan
Tsvangirai in an effort to broker a power-sharing deal between
them.South African President Thabo Mbeke (file photo)Mr. Mbeki has been
mediating between Mr. Mugabe's ZANU-PF party and the opposition Movement
for Democratic Change.Officials in Zimbabwe said there has been
significant progress in the talks, but would not give any details.The
South African Foreign Ministry has declined to say how close the two
sides are to resolution of Zimbabwe's political crisis.Mr. Mugabe was
re-elected June 27 in a runoff that Tsvangirai boycotted and many
foreign observers rejected as a sham.Tsvangirai,
who won the first-round of voting in March, pulled out of the runoff
because of alleged state-sponsored violence against his supporters.
The MDC accused Mugabe backers of killing dozens of MDC activists and
injuring thousands more in the weeks leading up to the runoff. On
Wednesday, the rival parties issued a joint statement calling on
supporters to stop politically-motivated violence.The parties are under
pressure to reach an agreement so Zimbabwe can start to recover from its
long economic crisis.The
country suffers from 80 percent unemployment and an official inflation
rate of more than two million percent. Critics blame government
policies, while Mr. Mugabe blames a Western conspiracy led by former
colonial power Britain.

Some information for this report was provided by Reuters.


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