Tsvangirai says he will return home Saturday

Zimbabwe’s opposition leader will return home Saturday, despite fears of possible assassination attempts, he said today.

Morgan Tsvangirai faces a run-off election against President Robert Mugabe on June 27. Official results say he won the first round of voting at the end of March but not by an absolute majority.

Tsvangirai planned to return to Zimbabwe last Saturday but delayed this after his party the Movement for Democratic Change said there was an assassination plot.

“I am going home …. Saturday,” Tsvangirai told a crowd of Zimbabweans in Johannesburg today as he sought to comfort his compatriots who have born the brunt of anti-foreigner attacks in South Africa.

Independent human rights groups say opposition supporters have been targeted in a campaign of violence aimed at ensuring 84-year-old Mugabe wins the presidential runoff.

The economic and political crisis in Zimbabwe has led to an exodus from the country. More than three million Zimbabweans are believed to be in neighbouring South Africa.

Resentment that foreigners are competing for scarce jobs and houses has led to a wave of anti-foreigner attacks in South Africa in the past 10 days. Zimbabweans have born the brunt.

Tsvangirai told a crowd of Zimbabweans outside the police station in the Alexandra township, where the violence started, that Zimbabwe’s crisis had spilled over into South Africa.

“I am hoping that we are able to solve our crisis back home,” he said.