South African President Thabo Mbeki is meeting in Bulawayo with Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe before runoff presidential elections next week. VOA's Delia Robertson reports from our southern Africa bureau in Johannesburg, the meeting backdrop is a deepening political, social and economic crisis in Zimbabwe.

South African President Thabo Mbeki has axed his deputy health minister who questioned the national AIDS policy, a move experts warned could have a "deadly" impact in the HIV-blighted nation.

If President Thambo Mbeki could be so irrational in his diplomatic hypocrisy as seen in his rapport with President Robert Mugabe, then it is not surprising that he is supporting the criminal ruling party in Nigeria.