Mr Colin Powell, touring Africa as the first African-American US Secretary of State, called yesterday for action to prevent a political crisis in Zimbabwe from spilling over into neighbouring South Africa.
In South Africa, on the second stop of a four-nation trip, Mr Powell discussed regional conflicts with the Foreign Minister, Ms Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, and criticised Zimbabwe's President, Mr Robert Mugabe.
"I just want to add that in the conversation we not only discussed the economic crisis. I concentrated on the political crisis caused to a large extent by the actions of President Mugabe," Mr Powell said. "The two things together are leading to a crisis that will spill over the borders and affect South Africa itself. Action has to be taken to stabilise the situation and persuade Mr Mugabe to act in a more democratic fashion," he added.
Ms Zuma voiced fears about Zimbabwe, South Africa's largest African trading partner. "We view the situation in Zimbabwe as very critical and we are very worried both as neighbours and people who do a lot of trade with Zimbabwe," she said.
Ms Zuma said South Africa would meet Zimbabwe soon "to make suggestions to them on how we think we should work together". In a crisis that has led to several deaths and paralysed the economy, Mr Mugabe has targeted more than 3,000 white-owned farms as part of his plan to redistribute land he says was stolen by colonialists more than a century ago.
Later yesterday Mr Powell visited HIV/AIDS patients in the township of Soweto outside Johannesburg.