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A week of strikes shows that the opposition lacks a plan and that President Robert Mugabe needs brute force to survive

Let him take his medicine!' South Africa's Foreign Minister Nkosazana Zuma told fellow diplomats after learning that opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai had been detained after a week of strikes against President Robert Mugabe's government. Zuma fumed that Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change had pushed back prospects for serious negotiations with the Mugabe government by launching its mass action last week. Zuma is a close confidante of South African President Thabo Mbeki and her outburst shows how little sympathy Pretoria has with either Tsvangirai or the MDC....

(This article contains approximately 1064 words)

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Keywords:

South Africa, Nkosazana Zuma, Morgan Tsvangirai, Robert Mugabe, Thabo Mbeki, John Prendergast, United States, The final push, Welshman Ncube, British, Francis Nhema, John Arnold Bredenkamp, Thamer Al-Shanfari, Paul Themba Nyathi, Dutch, Africa Confidential, Daily News, Sunday Times