President Mbeki meets Robert Mugabe

President Thabo Mbeki and Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe discussed peace efforts in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zimbabwe’s political and economic crisis on Thursday, officials said. South African Foreign Affairs spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa said that the two leaders met without their aides at Johannesburg airport, where Mugabe was in transit to Malaysia. “They took advantage of the meeting to discuss matters of mutual interest including bilateral relations, the peace process in the Congo and the challenges facing Zimbabwe,” Mamoepa said. Mbeki has spearheaded efforts to mediate over a controversial land seizure programme in the former British colony. Self-styled veterans of the former Rhodesia’s liberation war and supporters of Mugabe’s ruling ZANU-PF party have occupied more than 1,000 white-owned farms since February in a campaign sanctioned by Mugabe. The government has identified 3,041 of the 4,500 white-owned commercial farms for forced resettlement, and has so far served formal notice on about 2,000 farmers of its intention to seize their land without compensation. Mugabe’s government has so far defied last week’s Supreme Court order to evict war veterans from the farms.