Southern Africans will be hoping that Monday's meeting between African leaders in Harare will yield positive outcomes for Zimbabwe and the region, Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon said on Sunday. President Thabo Mbeki, Nigerian president Olusegan Obasanjo, and president Bakili Muluzi of Malawi are scheduled to meet Zimbabwe's president Robert Mugabe and the country's opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai.

South Africa's Department of Foreign Affairs said the meeting was part of efforts by the African leadership to assist the people of Zimbabwe in their endevour to find national reconciliation.

Said Leon: "We wish President Mbeki well in his endeavours. There is no doubt that the crisis in Zimbabwe has become a test of credibility of SADC and the new African Union. It is a test which our country and region has failed too often in the past three years."

After three years of broken promises and missed deadlines Zimbabwe was on the brink, Leon said.

"Unfortunately its leader Robert Mugabe while tyrannical in disposition is brilliant at brinkmanship."

He used every opportunity and every meeting to buy time and to avoid his democratic and economic responsibilities."

It is time and in fact is long overdue that the visiting presidents call his bluff and narrow his options."

Nobody could doubt the urgent need for action. – Sapa