[Because Mbeki knows Mugabe is busy working overtime to RIG IT! Jan]

Cape Town – South African President Thabo Mbeki expressed confidence on Thursday that next year’s general elections in troubled Zimbabwe would be free and fair, despite fears to the contrary.

In answering questions in parliament, Mbeki said he had been assured by both Zimbabwe’s leadership, civil society and non-governmental organisations that they will be able to agree on procedures to ensure a fair poll.

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“Now I believe the Zimbabweans about their own country,” said Mbeki, who is mediating talks between the ruling ZANU-PF and opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

President Robert Mugabe, 83, who has led Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980, is expected to seek re-election in March presidential and parliamentary elections.

The previous two general elections were mired in allegations of vote-rigging and intimidation. Critics have questioned whether the next polls will be fair, given restrictive media laws and a government-ordered security clampdown.

Mbeki, whose quiet diplomacy with Zimbabwe has been criticised, reiterated South Africa’s stance that an imposed regime change was “fundamentally wrong”.

Thousands of Zimbabweans are fleeing what was once the bread basket of southern Africa but is now facing severe food, fuel and foreign currency shortages and the world’s highest inflation rate of more than 7 000 percent.

Africa’s biggest economy, South Africa is bearing the brunt of the Zimbabwean influx, with thousands crossing crocodile-infested rivers in search of a better life.

Mugabe, who blames the west for his country’s economic decline, stands accused of engineering Zimbabwe’s chaotic descent with controversial policies, such as confiscating white farms and redistributing it to the black majority.

Mbeki said beyond the political and economic interventions of the 14-member Southern African Development Community, there was nothing else that could be done.

“Indeed I do believe that to try and cook up some other intervention will not help us to solve the problem with Zimbabwe,” Mbeki said.

URL: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click…/p>