Mugabe now has support, claims Harare

HARARE, Tuesday - The Zimbabwean government today claimed that African leaders were warming up to President Robert Mugabe after realising that they were misled by the opposition on his re-election.

African leaders broke with tradition to condemn Mr Mugabe’s June 27 run-off election where he ran alone following the last minute withdrawal from the race by main contender and opposition leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai.

This was after more than 100 of Mr Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) supporters were killed and thousands others displaced in an orgy of state sponsored violence ahead of the polls.

Refused to recognise

Countries such as Botswana, Nigeria, Kenya, Liberia, Zambia and Tanzania refused to recognise Mr Mugabe’s re-election. An African Union (AU) summit held a few days after the run-off poll called on the ageing dictator to share power with the opposition and refrained from recognising him as Zimbabwe’s legitimate leader.

But the state controlled Herald newspaper, which usually reflects government thinking, claimed that some Southern African Development Community (SADC) leaders had apologised for their stance and accused Mr Tsvangirai of lying to them about the political situation in Zimbabwe.

The paper claimed that leaders from Zambia, Botswana and Tanzania expressed “embarrassment” at having “blindly supported” the opposition leader during the just ended SADC summit in South Africa after a briefing by President Thabo Mbeki.

“The biggest surprise, however came from Nigeria, which sent a high profile emissary to South Africa on Sunday to seek a meeting with President Mugabe and offer apologies for taking an “uninformed position” on Zimbabwe’s electoral processes during the last AU summit in Egypt,” the paper claimed.

Botswana, whose leader President Ian Khama boycotted the summit protesting against Mr Mugabe’s presence, is also said to have urged Mr Tsvangirai to accept a power sharing deal with Zanu PF.

“He (Botswana’s foreign minister, Mr Phandu Skelemani) said his analysis of the situation was that Tsvangirai had misled them on Zimbabwe’s political processes,” the Herald said.