Zuma urges more aid for Zimbabwe

South African President Jacob Zuma on Friday urged donors to give more aid to Zimbabwe to revive the shattered economy, while telling the nation's feuding leaders to quickly mend their differences.

Six months after President Robert Mugabe joined Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, the former opposition leader, in a unity government, they remain deadlocked over key appointments.Tsvangirai also complains that his supporters still suffer harassment from police, all issues that Zuma indicated he would discuss with the leaders during his two-day visit.

Zuma met with Tsvangirai late into the night Thursday, and held nearly two hours of talks with him and Mugabe on Friday."The parties are in agreement on the need to speed up the implementation and find solutions to the current points of disagreement," Zuma said later in a speech at a farm show.

"As South Africa, we encourage donors to provide the development aid that is direly needed to ensure that the inclusive government is able discharge its responsibilities of turning around the political and socio-economic development situation in Zimbabwe."Zuma said the government should prioritise benchmarks related to the unity pact that donors want met before aid is granted, while saying economic recovery was also dependent on the removal of sanctions.

"We appeal to the international community to remove any remaining hindrances to Zimbabwe's recovery including sanctions," he said."We also emphasise that the parties in Zimbabwe should work together to remove any remaining obstacles to the implementation of the agreement."

-AFP