Disaster looming says Tsvangirai

Zimbabwe is teetering on the brink of collapse as the economy continues to nosedive precipitously and President Robert Mugabe's increasingly clueless government fails to align the country's law with the constitution-leading it to resort to abductions and thuggish power retention methods, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has said.

In a strongly-worded letter to South African President Jacob Zuma, who is also chairman of Sadc's organ on politics, defence, and security, Tsvangirai highlighted the wilting democratic space in Zimbabwe, warning that unless the regional body intervened, the country would soon be consumed by chaos and anarchy.

"Your Excellency, the situation in Zimbabwe is getting out of hand and civil strife is imminent. Zimbabweans are once again being subjected to suppression by government. We call upon the region and the continent not to sit idly by and watch Zimbabwe slide back into chaos," Tsvangirai warned.

The letter which was copied to all the other Sadc heads of state, African Commission chairperson Nkosazan Dhlamini-Zuma, UN secretary-generally, Ban Ki Moon and the EU head of delegation in Zimbabwe Phillipe Van Damme, said the resistance by Mugabe to democratic reforms pointed to worse things to come.