Cape Town - President Jacob Zuma has called on the leaders of Zimbabwe to implement their power-sharing agreement.
"We are saying to our brothers and sisters in Zimbabwe that they must implement an agreement. It's very important," the President said during an interview with the SABC on Sunday.
While he conceded that the agreement between President Robert Mugabe, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara was not easy to implement and that they were trying their best, they also needed to take into account the effect on other countries.
"Because of the size of South Africa and its economy, Zimbabweans tend to come here in big numbers. Now that affects South Africa. It's an important point to take into account as we deal with the Zimbabwean situation, that it's not just a situation that affects Zimbabwe only," he said.
He said Zimbabweans were also flocking to Botswana, in Mozambique, in Malawi and Zambia and therefore it was affecting the whole region.
"We have got a situation and therefore the correcting of the Zimbabwean situation is important, because it does ease the pressure that you would have in South Africa, the estimation is that between three and four million Zimbabweans are here, that's not a small number," said President Zuma.
He said South Africa and the region were willing to help them to implement the agreement and further called on richer countries to help rebuild the country.
"We are also calling upon other countries who have got more possibilities to help support financially, resource-wise, with material, to ensure that that agreement holds and it works and it begins to take Zimbabwe out of the trouble."
Zimbabwe has been appealing for $8.5 billion to rebuild its broken economy after forming a unity government in February.
Mr Tsvangirai is scheduled to meet his Dutch counterpart Jan Peter Balkenende on Monday on the first leg of a three-week tour of Europe and America to raise aid. He also expected to visit the United States (US) for talks with President Barack Obama.
He will also meet officials at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund while in the US. The European leg of his tour will take him to Britain, France, Sweden and Brussels, seat of the 27-nation EU.
