South Africa's ruling party pledges to support Mugabe

South Africa's ruling ANC party on Thursday pledged to help President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF come up with an election strategy so that it regains lost ground.The party's secretary-general Gwede Mantashe told delegates attending Zanu-PF's annual conference in Bulawayo that this was the only way ANC could pay back to Zanu-PF the assistance rendered during its struggle against the apartheid regime in South Africa.He said Zanu-PF and the ANC had a long-standing history of working together and Zanu-PF had assisted the South Africans during their struggle against the apartheid regime."We acknowledge that your problems are our problems and your successes are our successes," he said while delivering a solidarity message from his party.Secretary-General of Zambia's Patriotic Front Wynter Kabimba also pledged his party's support to Zanu-PF, saying they shared the same values and principles.While he applauded the leaderships of Zanu-PF and the MDC factions for their commitment to the power-sharing Global Political Agreement, he urged "all those who are genuinely interested in the future of Zimbabwe to assist the Zimbabwean people realize this dream."He said the countries that had imposed economic sanctions on Zimbabwe should lift them unconditionally, adding that no country had the right to determine the course of history for another country.