At a press conference in Jo’burg on Sunday, the MDC’s Tendai Biti termed the situation in Zimbabwe “war” and urged African leaders and the UN to intervene - the death toll amongst MDC supporters no stands at 10, with “hundreds” injured after reprisal beatings and “thousands” displaced, trying to avoid the violence. Never mind large numbers that have been arrested. The situation that they paint is one of a country sliding towards civil war, with the party trying hard to keep a lid on the rising frustrations amongst its supporters but aware that the longer the current uncertainty continues, the more likely it’ll be that there’ll be a response to Zanu-PF’s violence. Reports from other sources seem to indicate that may not be far away either, with tensions in the townships already high.

A violent response would, of course, allow Mugabe to wriggle out of the election in other ways, and is probably just what he’s hoping will happen. If that fails, the Zimbabwe Today has details of a possible Plan B that would see the Presidential vote re-run from scratch.

In the meantime, the “re-count” of some constituency votes continues, with ZEC claiming it will take a few days to complete - remember, these counts were all completed within a few days after polling closed, so if that’s a genuine excuse then the ZEC are criminally incompetent - and since the High Court ordered a few days ago that the recounts should not proceed, they’re engaging in criminal activity of another kind.

In the meantime, calls for action are growing louder - former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan joined the chorus on Saturday, and current SG Ban Ki-Moon is planning to raise the issue at a UN summit in Ghana this week. But if African leaders have so far managed to fiddle while Zimbabwe burns, what are the chances of any of them stepping up to the plate now?