Mugabe in SA on 'secret visit' - reports
January 25 2004 at 11:03AM
South African television said Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe had arrived in South Africa on Saturday on a secret visit amid confusion over whether he has agreed to formal talks with the opposition.
The SABC, which said the duration and purpose of the trip was unclear, gave no source for its report and the South African Foreign Affairs Ministry declined to confirm it.
"If President Mugabe is here in South Africa, it stands to reason that he would be on a private visit. If he was here on an official visit, we would not hesitate to inform the public," Foreign Affairs spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa said.
Government officials in Harare were not immediately available for comment.
Rumours swirled in October that Mugabe had been secretly flown to South African for treatment after suffering either a stroke or bad fall, but officials later denied the reports.
South African President Thabo Mbeki said on Thursday Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party was ready to resume formal dialogue with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) on resolving the country's political crisis.
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo made similar comments on Friday, but Zimbabwe's main political parties have not confirmed any breakthrough in launching negotiations.
Zanu-PF walked out of talks in 2002 after the MDC went to court to challenge Mugabe's re-election in a poll it and several international observers said was rigged.
The ruling party has said it will not resume formal dialogue until the MDC's legal challenge is dropped - a condition the MDC has said it cannot honour.
Mugabe insists he won the 2002 elections fairly and has labelled the MDC a puppet of Western powers who want to see him ousted over his seizure of white-owned commercial farms for redistribution among landless blacks.
The political crisis has exacerbated an economic meltdown in Zimbabwe, which suffers from rocketing inflation and unemployment, as well as critical shortages of food, fuel and foreign exchange.