I watched Mugabe last night at the SADC Summit in Johannesburg as he listened to the Zambian Foreign Minister lambaste him for his disregard for any sort of democratic principles in his effort to hold onto power. Mugabe had his eyes nearly closed, the camera was focused right up close and you could see his [...]

Mugabe is winning the political skirmishes but losing the war. He is gradually being forced to retreat and lose ground. It’s a struggle he cannot win, this is a numbers game and its already lost. The longer he hangs on and tries to defend what he has the less influence he will have over its outcome.

In the final analysis this is a straight fight between Thabo Mbeki and Zanu PF - the former has to secure an agreement that is acceptable to the MDC and also to the international community.

In my last letter I said that progress was being achieved at the talks in South Africa. My main reason for saying so was that we had not walked out of the talks and this signalled that our core demands were being met. MDC promptly walked out of the talks the next day!
Because of the [...]