South African President Thabo Mbeki said today Zimbabweans faced their greatest hour of need in the run-up to presidential elections and promised not to abandon them as their economic hardships mounted.
In his weekly online letter to members of his ruling African National Congress (ANC), Mr Mbeki said South Africans and Zimbabweans saw themselves as brothers united by history, a common suffering and a search for liberation.
|
|
Mr Thabo Mbeki
|
"They (Zimbabweans) know...we will not abandon them during their greatest hour of need, in much the same way as they did not abandon us at our greatest hour of need," he said.
Zimbabwe gave sanctuary and support to ANC guerrillas fighting apartheid rule, which ended in 1994.
Zimbabwe is stuck in a deepening social and economic crisis with President Robert Mugabe seeking to extend his 22-year rule in a presidential poll scheduled for March 9th and 10th.
Human rights monitors accuse Mr Mugabe of condoning violence and of using the police, army and the judiciary to ensure victory in the face of a collapsing economy.
White-owned farms are being confiscated - often violently - for redistribution to landless blacks in a move that is worsening the crisis by disrupting agricultural activities, threatening the country with food shortages.
But Mr Mbeki has refused to break ties with Mr Mugabe, saying his country would bear the brunt of a total economic or social collapse there and that his primary duty is to protect his limited influence over Mr Mugabe.