Harare — THE head of the South African election observer team to Zimbabwe, Mr Kingsley Mamabolo, has hailed improvements made in preparation for the forthcoming harmonised March 29 election.

Speaking in a radio interview in Johannesburg ahead of his journey to Zimbabwe last Friday, Mr Mamabolo said the authorities and people in the country are happy with the improvements made on the ground.

South Africa is sending 55 observers.

"I think our duty (is) to try and find out what these improvements are and what still needs to be done . . . Our duty will be to find out whether it is possible to do anything," he told SAFM.

Mr Mamabolo said his mission was not only focused on putting pressure on the Government but working with all groups taking party in the election.

"We'll be putting pressure on everybody to comply with the principles and the guidelines to which they ascribe to," he said.

Asked whether he believed the elections were going to be free and fair, Mr Mamabolo said he was not in a position to pass judgment before coming to Zimbabwe because he needed to establish the actual situation on the ground.

"We're going in there with a sense of confidence and we want to be neutral and to be able to judge elections, which can go either way. I'm sure it could be free and fair and there could be other ways. Our task will be to try and make them as credible as possible," he said.

Mr Mamabolo said he was confident they would have "unfettered access" to every single part of the election process and different areas that they deemed necessary

"I'm confident we should be able to do that. We are invited by those people, so they should give us access to every angle," he said.

On alleged violence in the country, Mr Mamabolo said they had been able to discover that the people were talking about some improvement.

"I'm not able to judge how far and how big that improvement is whether there is still some element of violence, but we would be able to determine that as we go along," Mr Mamabolo said.

He said it was difficult to come across elections that are declared 100 percent free and fair.

"We see this as an opportunity for Zimbabweans to turn the situation around and prove to the world that they are indeed democratic and transparent in what they are doing," said Mr Mamabolo.