Jacob Zuma thwarts efforts to force Robert Mugabe out

International efforts to end Zimbabwe's misery by forcing President Mugabe out of office were blunted yesterday when a key African leader urged further mediation despite the power-sharing impasse in Harare.

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As President Sarkozy of France called for a swift end to the Mugabe regime, Jacob Zuma, the head of South Africa's ruling ANC party, insisted that dialogue was still the best way forward. “President Mugabe must go,” Mr Sarkozy said in an address in Paris to The Elders, an independent group of statesmen and women who were recently refused visas to travel to Zimbabwe. His call followed similar demands from Britain and the US, as well as Raila Odinga, the Kenyan Prime Minister, at the weekend. More...

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