Zuma condemns media on Zim

The minister was speaking to reporters after talks with Italian deputy prime minister Massimo D'Alema.

"The suggestion that Minister Dlamini Zuma called for SADC to intervene in Zimbabwe is erroneous and misleading," said Mamoepa.

"Minister Dlamini-Zuma has confidence in the current SADC initiative on Zimbabwe."

In April, Deputy Minister Aziz Pahad said the SADC executive secretary of SADC was tasked to undertake a study on the country's deteriorating economic situation by an extraordinary SADC summit in March.

"The SADC economic rescue initiative is aimed at assisting the government of Zimbabwe to revive itself from the current economic challenges," he said.

Meanwhile, weekend reports said SADC was putting together a plan to peg the rand to the Zimbabwe dollar by extending the multilateral monetary area of South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho and Swaziland to Zimbabwe.

The SADC secretariat rejected the reports, Zimbabwean newspaper The Herald reported.

"SADC disassociates itself from any reported support packages as they did not originate from its secretariat," said the secretariat. - Sapa