The Guardian's revelation that the Zimbabwean armed forces have warned South Africa's government of a potential coup against Robert Mugabe prompted questions of President Thabo Mbeki in parliament in Cape Town yesterday. Mr Mbeki skirted the direct issue raised by high-level sources in Pretoria, who told the Guardian that the Zimbabwean army had made secret approaches to Pretoria to express fears that widespread food shortages within months could prompt riots and other unrest, and a military coup.

Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe's government has been thrown into disarray by the death of the defence minister, Moven Mahachi, the second cabinet minister to die in a car accident in the past month. Mr Mahachi, 53, was killed late Saturday afternoon in a car accident in Zimbabwe's eastern mountain district of Nyanga. He had been one of Mr Mugabe's longest serving and most trusted allies. In 1975 he helped Mr Mugabe escape Rhodesian authorities by sneaking across the eastern border to Mozambique.

Masvingo’s Mayoral elections again exposed the state media’s bias in favour of the ruling party. In previous weeks these media had given ample platform to the ruling party to campaign. In the week even after the defeat of the ruling party, the state-media solicited opinions from an array of Zanu PF sources. On the day the results were announced ZBCTV gave little airtime to the victor. On the other hand, The Daily News’ had a subjective interpretation of the results, both in its headline and in the text.