Let us call for urgent and courageous action by the four million Zimbabweans living in South Africa before the crucial elections in their country on Saturday.

Let us call for urgent and courageous action by the four million Zimbabweans living in South Africa before the crucial elections in their country on Saturday.

They must go home to vote and South Africans must do everything possible to help them.

Locals employing Zimbabweans must give them special leave to go and vote. If necessary, they should even offer them financial support for the journey.

Our government must put in place special measures to ease border crossings. This time must not be used to identify and arrest illegal immigrants from Zimbabwe.

A huge influx of Zimbabweans from South Africa, intent on voting out Robert Mugabe, will hit international media headlines. It will also go a long way to encouraging Zimbabweans to resist intimidation and bribery and showdetermination to turn up at the polls en mass, to rid the country of the megalomaniac whose rule has transformed Zimbabwe from the breadbasket of Africa into a basket case.

Our government must help Zimbabweans to go home to vote and to condemn any attempts at vote-rigging by Mugabe. SABC's radio and TV services in Zimbabwe must be used to ensure free and fair polls and condemn the rule of the "man of ruin".

Cliff Saunders, Northcliff