African official added that Pretoria believes it knows who produced the allegedly counterfeited South African government memo. This week Reuters quoted a senior official in Lusaka as saying the document circulated by Harare although news reports at the time attributed it to South African President Thabo Mbeki.
The latest development in the saga emerged in an article Friday in the South African Business Day newspaper which quoted South African presidential director general Frank Chikane as accusing unknown parties of leaking the document in the intention of damaging South Africa’s position in the crisis resolution process and depicting Mr. Mbeki as mediating in bad faith in the crisis.
British-based analyst Bekithemba Mhlanga told reporter Chris Gande of VOA’s Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that the evidence pointing to Harare suggests how far the ruling party is now prepared to go to maintain its position amidst shifting political winds.