Southern Africa launches urgent aid for Zimbabwe

ZIMBABWE’s neighbours will launch an urgent humanitarian campaign in the hope of saving the country from economic collapse and a cholera epidemic, South African president Kgalema Motlanthe said yesterday.

Almost 1,000 people have died in the cholera outbreak, piling more agony on Zimbabweans already suffering runaway hyperinflation and shortages of food and fuel. The cholera has intensified western calls for President Robert Mugabe, who has ruled since independence from Britain in 1980, to step down.

Regional mediation has failed to persuade the ruling ZANU-PF and opposition to implement a September power-sharing agreement, seen as the best chance of easing an economic crisis that has driven millions of Zimbabweans to neighbouring countries.

But deadlock over ministries has blocked progress in negotiations as Zimbabwe descends further into chaos.

Motlanthe expressed hope that a Zimbabwean government will be formed this week. But the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) did not share his optimism.

Motlanthe told a news conference in Pretoria that the parties have not raised the issue of Mugabe stepping aside and he should stay on under the terms of the power-sharing pact.

Motlanthe expected MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai to accept the prime ministerial role.

John Makumbe, a political analyst and Mugabe critic, said regional state must pressure Zimbabwe’s president to end the stalemate.

“They want to treat the symptoms without addressing the root cause of the humanitarian crisis, which is the illegitimate Mugabe regime,” he said, voicing doubts over whether the MDC would join a government soon.