Southern African leaders Sunday pressured Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe to make democratic reforms ahead of new elections, hoping to set a new timetable for polls.
Leaders of the 15-nation Southern African Development Community had discussed Zimbabwe late Saturday on the eve of a free trade summit. After failing to reach a decision, they resumed talks after Sunday's trade meeting. None of the leaders spoke as they entered the closed-door meeting, expected to run late into the night.
The region's security "Troika" body in March issued a unusually sharp rebuke to Mugabe, demanding an end to political violence and insisting that reforms promised in the so-called Global Political Agreement are implemented.
That agreement created the unity government between Mugabe and his rival Morgan Tsvangirai, now the prime minister, after failed elections in 2008 ended in spiral of deadly political unrest and economic collapse.
Together they were meant to oversee the drafting of a new constitution and hold elections, but the process is running a year behind schedule, a delay that the Troika blamed on Mugabe during the March meeting in Livingstone.
"Livingstone represented a major advance on the part of SADC," said Zimbabwean political analyst Bornwell Chakaodza. "In the past, it had a softly-softly approach to our situation. I think the last thing that SADC wants is to look toothless, not only to Zimbabweans, but to the international community, after their robust approach." Now the full summit is expected to sign off on a roadmap that will lay out a new timetable for the constitution and later elections.
Neighbouring nations had previously handled Mugabe with kid gloves, and the pointed statement in Livingstone drew a fierce reaction from the 87-year-old president and his party, which questioned the integrity of South African President Jacob Zuma.