Coalition talks gather pace

The on-again, off-again coalition talks between Zimbabwe's opposition parties are set to resume in South Africa next week after an international think-tank agreed to facilitate them, as the drive to have a single candidate face President Robert Mugabe in the 2018 election gathers momentum.

Letters of invitation to the coalition talks were addressed to party presidents, but it was not clear by yesterday whether MDC-T leader, Morgan Tsvangirai and ZimPF's Joice Mujuru would attend in person.

Opposition party leaders, confirmed the talks - which will also touch on the unending political and economic problems the country faces – were on the cards, but pleaded that the issue be kept out of the public domain, fearing the Zanu PF government would try to derail the initiative.

According to sources, the high-level meeting will be convened by In Transformative Initiative (ITI), an organization that seeks to assist and support peace-making processes by drawing from the South African experience.