Zimbabwe’s Mugabe Faces Pro-Democracy Push From Powerful Neighbor, South Africa

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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/11/world/africa/11zimbabwe.html?_r=1&ref=global-home

JOHANNESBURG — As heads of state from across southern Africa meet here Saturday to wrestle yet again with Zimbabwe’s intractable crisis, the country’s 87-year-old strongman, Robert Mugabe, is facing a new reality: a strong and very public pro-democracy line from the region’s most powerful country, South Africa.

The president of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, laid down the law at a meeting of regional leaders in March, saying the violence, intimidation and politically inspired arrests must stop and conditions for free elections be met. Lately, an adviser to Mr. Zuma has been taking up the theme, bluntly declaring that it is time democracy came to Zimbabwe.

“The simple fact is that people are tired,” Mr. Zuma’s adviser, Lindiwe Zulu, said in an interview on Wednesday. “People want to see democracy. People need their voices to be heard. Those are the winds that are sweeping the continent, and people ignore them at their peril.”

On Saturday, Mr. Zuma’s approach faces a critical test: will African leaders, many of whom have cozy relationships with Mr. Mugabe, back Mr. Zuma’s insistence on elections free of the violence that Mr. Mugabe’s party, Zanu-PF, has used to stay to power for three decades? Will Mr. Zuma hold firm?