South African Leaders Press For Action As Zimbabwe Crisis Deepens
South African President Kgalema Motlanthe said the humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe can only deepen if a legitimate unity government is 
SouthAfrican President Kgalema Motlanthe said Monday that talks to resolve theZimbabwe crisis will resume on Tuesday in Pretoria with negotiatorsfrom ZANU-PF and both groupings of the Movement for Democratic Change and mediator Thabo Mbeki. Mr. Motlanthe said the humanitarian crisis is bound to deteriorate without a legitimate government in place. Motlanthe told reporters that, "Unless this root cause of the political absence of a legitimate government issolved, the situation will get worse and may implode and collapse." Elsewhere, Jacob Zuma, president of South Africa's ruling African NationalCongress, said the party will send a delegation to Zimbabwe shortly to assess humanitarian needs. "The situation has just gone beyond a situation where we can say ’let us waitand see’," Zuma told journalists. "We have got to act and act now." The statements from South Africa's top political leadership closely followed Harare's action on the weekend barring entry into the country by adelegation of so-called Elders led by former United Nations Secretary-GeneralKofi Annan and including former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and human rights advocateGraça Machel, wife of Nelson Mandela. The members of the organization of international eminent persons said they wanted a first-hand look at the crisis. But Zimbabwe state media called the mission partisan. Representatives of some Zimbabwean non-governmental organizations flew to South Africa on short notice to meet with the Elders after they were excluded from Zimbabwe.