A stampede looms at Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa, this weekend when activists from Zimbabwe’s feuding political parties jostle to air their grievances to the Sadc Heads of State meeting to review the Zimbabwe crisis.

South Africa-based members of the secessionist Mthwakazi Liberation Front (MLF) party have planned to mobilise over 2 000 supporters based in Johannesburg to demonstrate against what they say is marginalisation of the Matabeleland region.

MLF secretary for legal affairs Sabelo Ngwenya said the demonstrations would be held on June 11, the date of the crunch meeting on Zimbabwe, on the sidelines of the Comesa/Sadc summit.

MLF leader Paul Siwela was recently released on bail by the Supreme Court on a treason charge after he swore never to commit a similar offence in future.

The MDC-T led by President Robert Mugabe’s nemesis in the wobbly inclusive government, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, said it also planned to mobilise its members to vigorously protest over outstanding issues in the GPA.

Nqabutho Dube, spokesperson of the South Africa chapter of the Welshman Ncube-led MDC-N, said his party’s youth wing would meet today to decide whether to join the planned mass protests.

MDC-T says it has reports that Zanu PF was planning to "bus" its supporters to the venue to cause confusion during the demonstrations, an assertion the former revolutionary party dismissed as false.

"The main wing will be joined by the MLF Women’s League and other comrades in the ‘Free Mthwakazi Now’ demonstration," MLF’s Ngwenya said.

"Our position is that the Matabeleland question is marginalised in the current Zimbabwean political impasse between Zanu PF and the two MDCs. Solving the Zimbabwe question will not necessarily resolve the Matabeleland question.

"Our thrust is to place the Matabeleland question in the international discourse vis-a-vis the Zimbabwe question.

"What is of paramount importance for us is to see the question of the Mthwakazi people’s right to self-determination come into the fore whenever people engage on the Zimbabwe question," he said.

An MDC-T official in the party’s South African structures, Austin Moyo, said Zanu PF was "holding Zimbabwe to ransom" and his party would seek to highlight that issue.

"It is a demonstration to raise our concerns on the outstanding issues in the GPA. Zanu PF is holding Zimbabwe to ransom and wants to call for elections this year when there are numerous outstanding issues," he said.

Moyo claimed his party had information Zanu PF would bus people from Zimbabwe to descend on dissenting voices, adding: "If they (Zanu PF) create such conflict we will be up to the challenge. We have the police clearance and are busy with the banners now."

MLF’s Ngwenya said his party was prepared for the showdown in South Africa.

"There will be competition, but we are hopeful that we will manage to push the Mthwakazi agenda to the fore. We have the numbers in terms of support," he boasted.

Zanu PF spokesperson Rugare Gumbo dismissed the MDC-T claims as false, but declined to say whether the party was going to demonstrate at the summit.

"I don’t know anything about that. It has not been brought to my attention," he said.

By Special correspondent