Zimbabwe on Thursday confiscated the passports of Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change and two top advisers to prevent them from attending Friday’s Southern African Development Community summit.

By preventing the MDC team from going to the regional summit, Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s president, not only risks further alienating his neighbours but also infuriating Thabo Mbeki, South Africa’s president, for whom this weekend’s meeting is especially important, as he will become the new SADC chairman.