South Africans bid to kickstart Zimbabwe talks

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2008

PRETORIA (AFP) — South African officials were locked in separate negotiations with Zimbabwe's political rivals on Friday in a bid to kickstart stalled power-sharing talks to resolve a ruinous political crisis.

"They (the talks) started this morning," the spokesman for South African mediator, President Thabo Mbeki, told AFP.

The deputy leader of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), Tendai Biti, flew to Pretoria for a meeting with Mbeki's officials but would not hold direct discussions with representatives of President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party, the MDC said.

South Africa's Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad said earlier Friday that talks would resume on Friday "to finalise all outstanding matters".

But MDC spokesman Nelson...