The Zimbabwe opposition’s bid to build up pressure on President Robert Mugabe after disputed polls bore fruit on Wednesday as plans were unveiled for a weekend summit to discuss the crisis. The president of neighbouring Zambia said he would gather his peers for talks on Saturday, aimed at breaking the deadlock that has persisted since the March 29 polls.
Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai urged the leaders of Southern Africa on Wednesday to use their influence to help prevent his country from sliding into chaos following disputed elections. MDC lawyers, meanwhile, were trying to persuade the High Court to order the immediate release of the results of the March 29 presidential election.
Seretse Khama Ian Khama was inaugurated as Botswana’s President on Tuesday, inheriting a rare political and economic success story. Just next door, millions of Zimbabweans desperate to end economic misery anxiously awaited results of an election in which President Robert Mugabe faced the biggest challenge in 28 years of iron-fisted rule.
The new president of Botswana pledged on Tuesday that there would be no radical change in policy as he took the oath of office at a ceremony in Gaborone. A former army chief whose father was the country’s first post-independence president, Seretse Khama Ian Khama promised to uphold democracy for which his country has been known since independence.
Festus Mogae is to stand down as Botswana’s president on Tuesday after a decade in which his country cemented its status as one of Africa’s success stories despite fears it could be wiped out by HIV/Aids. Mogae, who hands over the reins of power to his long-time heir apparent Ian Khama, styled himself as the ”chief executive” of a nation of about two million.