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Harare: Calling for international intervention to help end the 28-year rule of President Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has gone to regional power South Africa for talks, aides said yesterday.
Tsvangirai, who says he won a March 29 presidential election and Mugabe's rule is over, flew to South Africa while his Movement for Democratic Change went to court to try to force the release of results of the vote.
The Zimbabwe High Court was due to rule yesterday whether it has the authority to rule on the MDC application. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission is resisting and Mugabe's ruling party wants the results delayed pending a recount.
MDC officials said yesterday Tsvangirai had gone to South Africa for private talks but gave no details.
Tsvangirai said in a newspaper article that Zimbabwe was on a razor's edge.
"Major powers here, such as South Africa, the US and Britain, must act to remove the white-knuckle grip of Mugabe's suicidal reign and oblige him and his minions to retire," Tsvangirai wrote in Britain's Guardian newspaper.
Failure to mediate
But South African President Thabo Mbeki, who failed last year to mediate an end to the Zimbabwe crisis, said at the weekend the post-election situation there was "manageable" and it was not the time for international intervention.
No results have emerged from the presidential vote nine days ago, fuelling opposition concern that Mugabe is buying time to organise a fight-back after his ruling Zanu-PF lost control of parliament in the March 29 election - his biggest defeat in an uninterrupted rule since independence.
Projections show Tsvangirai has won the presidential election but will be forced into a runoff vote after failing to win an absolute majority.
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