 Zimbabwe's Mugabe faces pro-democracy push from powerful neighbor, South Africa. Johannesburg, as heads of state from across Southern Africa meet here Saturday to wrestle yet again with Zimbabwe's intractable crisis, the country's 87-year-old strongman, Robert Mugabe, is facing a new reality, a strong and very public pro-democracy line from the region's most powerful country, South Africa. The president of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, laid down the law at a meeting of regional leaders in March, saying the violence, intimidation and politically inspired arrests must stop and conditions for free elections be met. Lately, an adviser to Mr. Zuma has been taking up the theme, bluntly declaring that it is time democracy came to Zimbabwe. The simple fact is that people are tired, Mr. Zuma's adviser, Linda Iwizulu, said in an interview on Wednesday. People want to see democracy. People need their voices to be heard. Those are the winds that are sweeping the continent, and people ignore them at their peril. On Saturday, Mr. Zuma's approach faces a critical test, will African leaders, many of whom have cozy relationships with Mr. Mugabe, back Mr. Zuma's insistence on elections free of the violence that Mr. Mugabe's party, Zanu P.F., has used to stay to power for three decades. Will Mr. Zuma hold firm? Long accustomed to being treated with exquisite deference by South Africa, Mr. Mugabe is not going quietly. He has said he is tired of sharing power with his rival, Morgan Spangire, and wants to run per president again this year. And he has lashed out at Mr. Zuma, chosen by the region as its broker in the Zimbabwe negotiations. He has dispatched his key lieutenants, men who human rights groups say are implicated in crimes against humanity, to lobby the leaders assembled here this weekend. The state news media he controls have sharply criticized Mrs. Zulu, Mr. Zuma's advisor. Colomists in the Herald have labeled her as, among other things, reckless, loquacious, incompetent and dangerously partisan. One writer quoted unnamed sources saying, Mr. Zuma agreed that indeed the girl's wings should be clipped. This barrage has not silenced Mrs. Zulu, 53, an experienced member of the governing African National Congress who studied journalism in Moscow in the 1980s on an ANC scholarship, joined its armed wing in exile before the end of apartheid and served as a party spokeswoman during the 1994 election that made Nelson Mandela South Africa's first black president. As to the attacks on her in Zimbabwe's state news media, Mrs. Zulu said, It's very unfortunate, but we are not moved. She ventured that it would take a miracle for Zimbabwe to be ready for elections this year. Asked about the possibility that Mr. Mugabe would call elections without the support of the southern African development community, or SADC, the regional body, she replied, I don't think the president would like to go against an SADC decision. But the task of ensuring free and fair elections in Zimbabwe is a daunting one. Mrs. Zulu said the basic institutions that were supposed to guarantee a clean election and ensure a free press still needed strengthening.