Mugabe in South Africa for Mandela memorial

PRESIDENT Mugabe will Tuesday join over 90 current and former heads of state and government from around the world for the memorial service of former South African president Nelson Rohihlahla Mandela at the giant Soccer City Stadium here.

Mr Mandela succumbed to a lung infection on December 5, aged 95.

He was incarcerated for 27 years by the apartheid regime before leading the ANC - Africa's oldest liberation movement - to victory in elections in 1994 that ended half a century of apartheid and more than 300 years of racist colonial rule.

President Mugabe, who arrived here Monday night, has described Mr Mandela as a champion of the oppressed.

South Africa's President Jacob Zuma has said Mr Mandela will be buried on December 15 at his ancestral village of Qunu in Eastern Cape Province.

From December 11 to 13, Mr Mandela's remains will lie in state at Union Buildings in Tshwane as part of the week of national mourning.

Zimbabwe and South Africa's ties run long and deep, with liberation movements from the two countries collaborating to fight the oppressive Western-backed regimes in their two countries. Those racist regimes largely worked hand-in-glove to ensure indigenous peoples remained second class citizens.

Zimbabwe, after gaining independence in 1980, hosted South African liberation fighters and nationalists and provided support for their struggle against apartheid.

So close were the two countries that, as revealed by former President Mbeki, Zimbabwe delayed its land reform revolution so as to give liberation fighters in South Africa time to first deal with apartheid before confronting colonially privileged white former farmers back home.

It was felt at the time that should Zimbabwe initiate widespread land reforms, the ensuing backlash from white farmers and governments in Europe and North America would work against efforts to end white supremacist rule in South Africa.

Bilateral relations between South Africa and Zimbabwe improved substantially as apartheid officially ended.

President Mugabe formally met Mr Mandela for the first time on January 27, 1994 along with Botswana's then President, Sir Ketumile Masire to find a peaceful resolution to a military mutiny in Lesotho.

Mr Mandela visited Harare in early 1995 and the two countries discussed trade issues and means of dismantling apartheid-era tariffs.

In November 1995, a ceremony attended by President Mugabe and Mr Mandela marked the opening of a new bridge linking the two countries, across the Limpopo River.

Since then, trade between Zimbabwe  and South Africa boomed, as have cultural exchanges. In the past decade, the trade - both formal and informal - has seen Zimbabwe's cash economy pumping millions of US dollars into South Africa, and in the country in return accessing goods and services.

Mr Mandela's successor, former president Mbeki, played a pivotal role in resolution of the political stand-off between Zimbabwe's main political parties.

The fruit of Mr Mbeki's efforts, the inclusive Government, paved the way for a key election on July 31, 2013 that saw President Mugabe romping to victory in a poll that South Africa joined many other observers in endorsing.