By Stella Mapenzauswa

JOHANNESBURG, Feb 13 (Reuters) - South Africa's president has failed to broker an end to Zimbabwe's political crisis and should abandon his "quiet support" of President Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe's main opposition leader said on Wednesday.

At a news conference in Johannesburg, Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the main faction of the Movement for Democratic Change, urged President Thabo Mbeki to show "a little courage" in dealing with the Zimbabwe crisis.

In Harare, former Zimbabwean finance minister and one-time Mugabe ally Simba Makoni called on officials from Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party to join his campaign to oust the 83-year-old president in the March 29 elections.

Makoni's recent entry into the presidential election has opened up what observers thought would be a two-person race between Mugabe and Tsvangirai at a time when Mbeki is mediating talks between the ZANU-PF and two MDC factions.

Mbeki, widely criticised for taking too soft a stance on Mugabe's autocratic rule, agreed to intervene in the crisis last year at the urging of the Southern African Development Community, a grouping of 14 nations.

"We need to see a little courage from Mr Thabo Mbeki," Tsvangirai said. "He can break with his policy of quiet support of the dictatorship in Zimbabwe."

Tsvangirai was among dozens of anti-Mugabe activists who were arrested and beaten by police at an aborted rally in Harare last year. The crackdown prompted international calls for an end to Mugabe's 27-year rule and spurred Mbeki's intervention.

But the talks sputtered and reached an impasse recently over disagreement on whether to introduce constitutional changes ahead of the elections next month. Mugabe is running for another five-year term as president.

"He (Mbeki) owes it to our common African humanity, he owes it to his own legacy, he owes it to his own people, he owes it to those (Zimbabweans) who are streaming across the river looking for jobs (and) security in the towns here in South Africa," Tsvangirai added.

An estimated 4,000 Zimbabweans cross into neighbouring South Africa each day to look for food and work amid a deep economic crisis that has turned once-prosperous Zimbabwe into one of the continent's poorest nations.

MDC DECISION

In response to Tsvangirai, South African Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Aziz Pahad said the MDC's decision to participate in the elections showed that Mbeki's efforts had borne fruit.

"Indeed all the parties are working in their primaries now preparing for elections ... If the mediation has failed then it's difficult for me to understand why everybody is going into elections," Pahad said in Cape Town.

The spotlight, however, increasingly is on Makoni not the MDC as millions of Zimbabweans prepare for the polls.

Makoni, who was formally expelled from the ZANU-PF on Tuesday, a week after entering the presidential race, said he was confident of victory but added that he needed independent parliamentary candidates to back his bid.

Launching his election manifesto at a news conference, Makoni said he was sure that Zimbabweans wanted and would embrace change despite fears a free election could not be guaranteed. Mugabe has been accused of rigging previous polls.

"The only confidence I have is the conviction of the rightness of our cause. I have confidence that the people of Zimbabwe yearn for change, and that they will ensure for themselves a free and fair election," Makoni said.

He declined to disclose the names of the ruling party officials he said were backing him, but urged those still supporting Mugabe to reverse course.

Political analysts say Mugabe, who has ruled the country since independence from Britain in 1980, may still be able to hang onto power against an increasingly divided opposition.

Both Makoni and the MDC are campaigning on a pledge to restore Zimbabwe's economy, which is ravaged by inflation over 26,000 percent and chronic shortages of food, fuel, electricity, water and foreign currency.

Critics accuse Mugabe of mismanaging the economy, while the veteran ruler blames the problems on sabotage by opponents in the West opposed to a land distribution programme that has seen thousands of white-owned farms seized and given to blacks. (Additional reporting by Cris Chinaka in Harare and Wendell Roelf in Cape Town) (Editing by Paul Simao and Giles Elgood)

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