Tsvangirai has resisted pressure from President Robert Mugabe and a section of his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party’s supporters for him to return and finalise a power sharing agreement signed on September 15 last year.

Already in his third month outside the country, Tsvangirai was said to be in Botswana on Wednesday “to take care of some business” after spending several days ensconced in South Africa.

“I expect that he will return to South Africa before going to Zimbabwe. His return home might not be until after the weekend,” the official said, declining to be named as he was not cleared to talk to the media.

The party’s spokesman Nelson Chamisa was said to be in Cape Town, South Africa, on an unexplained mission.

Despite swelling speculation that Tsvangirai’s senior officials have been summoned to South Africa for crunch talks on whether to enter a unity government with Mugabe’s Zanu PF, New Zimbabwe.com sources insist “that is a decision of the national council”.

“The idea that the president (Tsvangirai) can meet with a few other people and make such an important decision is clearly mischievous,” said the official, a member of the party’s national executive.

The MDC is said to be riven by divisions over what course to take, with a Constitutional Amendment Bill giving effect to the unity government set to be tabled in parliament on January 20.