Audio: interview with Morgan Tsvangirai

Nelson Mandela was pressured into criticising the Zimbabwean Government at a charity dinner in London last night, the Zimbabwean information minister claimed today.

With hours to go before Zimbabwe goes to the polls after a campaign marred by intimidation, torture and killings, the veteran anti-apartheid campaigner and statesman had said that there had been a “tragic failure of leadership in our neighboring Zimbabwe”.

Mr Mandela's remark was seized upon by Western leaders who have criticised President Robert Mugabe's increasingly disastrous rule, and by Morgan Tsvangirai, the opposition leader who pulled out of the election on Sunday blaming the political violence.

“We appreciate the solidarity from Nelson Mandela, it is something we cherish,” said Mr Tsvangirai in a phone interview with Sky News from the Dutch embassy in Harare, where he took shelter at the weekend.

However, Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, the Zimbabwean Information Minister, said that the statement was only caused by Western pressure. “Mandela is a statesman. He is courageous, yes he is,” Ndlovu said. “I am condemning all Westerners for putting pressure on Mandela.”

Mr Ndlovu coupled Mr Mandela's remarks with Britain’s decision to strip Mr Mugabe of his knighthood, saying both were part of a campaign by Africa's former colonial powers.

“All those things are of no consequence,” said Mr Ndlovu. He added that Zimbabwe's critics were hypocrites, and that no-one was condemning Britain for calling for more sanctions against Zimbabwe. “We would also like Mandela to condemn the sanctions against us.”

Jerome MacDonald Gumbo, the parliamentary chief whip for Zanu-PF, said that Mr Mandela's statement was "very unfortunate" and "totally unacceptable".

"I don't see the merit in that kind of statement... [It's] totally unacceptable... the judgement that he has made," Mr MacDonald Gumbo told the BBC.

More international sanctions against Zimbabwe remain a possibility. European Union leaders last week threatened Zimbabwe with further, unspecified measures, which Gordon Brown said might be targeted against members of Mr Mugabe’s regime.

Downing Street said today that sanctions were under review, but that Britain wanted to guard against hurting the population, who have suffered greatly from mass unemployment and hyperinflation caused by Zimbabwean mismanagement of the economy, as well as from the political violence.

Commenting on Mr Mandela’s intervention, a Downing Street spokesman said: “There is growing international condemnation of Robert Mugabe and his regime and what they are doing to suppress the democratic will of the Zimbabwean people.

“We have seen a number of condemnations from African leaders and African statesmen in recent days and Mr Mandela’s is the latest of those.”

The remarks were out of the ordinary as Mr Mandela, who is nearly 90 and largely retired from public life, uses his influence sparingly. It is particularly rare for him to differ publicly with Thabo Mbeki, South Africa’s current president. South Africans and other Africans have been increasingly questioning Mr Mbeki’s unwillingness to publicly criticise Mr Mugabe's use of violence against his own people.

The row over Mr Mandela's remarks came as Mr Mugabe launched into his final day of campaigning for the presidential second round ballot tomorrow, for which he is the only active candidate.

Mr Tsvangirai's name remains on the ballot paper and he is officially in contention, as his withdrawal from the election came too late. Commentators were predicting that few would be brave enough to vote for him now.

Mr Tsvangirai predicted that Zanu-PF would enforce a high turnout in order to gain a veneer of legitimacy. "There will be massive frogmarching of the people to the polling stations by force," said Mr Tsvangirai.

“There could be a massive turnout, not because of the will of the people but because of the role of the military and the traditional leaders to force people to these polls,” he said.

Zimbabwean police said that they had uncovered a plot by Britain and the United States, some foreign charities and Mr Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change to disrupt the vote with violence, including burning down voting tents.

“It is evident that the opposition MDC has plans to disrupt the election. These counter-productive criminal activities will be met head-on and with the full force of the law,” Assistant Commissioner Faustino Mazango told a news conference. He said the plot was revealed by five people arrested yesterday.

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