(AFP) – Jul 23, 2008

HARARE (AFP) — The start of full-scale talks to resolve Zimbabwe's political crisis were delayed for a second day on Wednesday as the main parties' top negotiators had yet to arrive in South Africa, sources said.

The negotiations, initially due to start on Tuesday and already facing a race against time given a two-week deadline, were not now due to begin in earnest until Thursday when all sides are in place in the capital Pretoria.

The delays mean South African President Thabo Mbeki, the chief mediator between Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF and opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), may not be around for the start of the talks as he due to fly out Thursday to attend a European Union summit in southwest France.

Although a spokesman for Mbeki said the talks process had started, sources within the MDC and ZANU-PF both confirmed that senior members of their delegations had yet to fly out of Harare.

"Tendai Biti (the MDC's secretary-general) left this morning, but chairman Lovemore Moyo is still in Bulawayo. He can either leave today or Thursday, his flight booking has been done already," an MDC source told AFP.

"The talks are only starting on Thursday so he can leave anytime."

A Zimbabwean government source also confirmed that ZANU-PF's chief negotiator Patrick Chinamasa was still in the country.

"Minister Chinamasa is still around. He can either leave tonight or first thing in the morning."

Chinamasa, who is also justice minister in President Robert Mugabe's cabinet, told the Herald newspaper it had been agreed with the opposition to begin the talks only when all the delegates were in place.

"All parties to the dialogue agreed that talks should begin on Thursday," Chinamasa told the state-run daily.

Mbeki's spokesman Mukoni Ratshitanga told AFP that the talks process had begun on Tuesday night but declined to comment on Chinamasa's comments.

"We have never been obliged to say who is at the meeting," he said.

Mugabe, main MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara, head of a breakaway opposition faction, penned a memorandum of understanding on Monday to pave the way for fully-fledged talks.

Both sides agreed in their memorandum of understanding inked in Harare to observe a media blackout during the course of negotiations that are expected to conclude within a fortnight.

Although the venue of the talks has been kept under wraps, the negotiations are expected to take place in the capital Pretoria.

Already going through an economic turmoil, Zimbabwe's crisis deepened when Mugabe was re-elected in a one-man run-off last month after Tsvangirai pulled out, citing a campaign of intimidation and violence against his supporters that had killed dozens and injured thousands.

The vote was widely condemned in the West as a sham, with the European Union warning that it would not deal with a government unless headed by Tsvangirai.

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