An emergency SADC (the Southern African Development Community) summit to address the ongoing political impasse in Zimbabwe is expected to convene in Pretoria, the administrative capital of South Africa on Monday, the South African Press Association reported.
The extraordinary summit, announced last week after power-sharing talks between Zimbabwe's three political leaders again deadlocked in Harare, will see heads of 15 SADC countries attempting to find a solution to the crisis in Zimbabwe.
Last Friday South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said the answer to the problem could not be dictated by SADC, but only by the country's three leaders.
It was hoped that Zimbabwe ruling ZANU-PF leader and President Robert Mugabe and the two Movement for Democratic Change faction leaders, Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara, would all be in attendance.
The political situation in Zimbabwe has been highlighted by numerous humanitarian crises since the March 2008 elections.
These include continued violence between rival parties, increased poverty, a cholera outbreak which has reportedly killed 2773 people and a breakdown of the country's economic, agricultural and education systems.
The SADC has met on numerous occasions to discuss the matter, never straying from its stance that the only solution to Zimbabwe's problems was an amendment to the September 2008 power-sharing agreement.
The amendment outlined the allocation of cabinet posts, which have been hotly contested by all parties.
South Africa is of the view that international or regional interference in the form of sanctions and military action will be counter productive.
Former South African president Thabo Mbeki, who is assigned as SADC mediator to Zimbabwe, has been criticized in some quarters for failing to get the parties to agree to a deal.
Monday's programme will start with a joint meeting of the SADC organ on politics, defence and security, which includes Swaziland, Angola and Mozambique, and the SADC troika meeting which includes South Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia, said Foreign Affairs department spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa.