Ravalomanana seeks Zuma’s intervention in Madagascar - Exiled former Madagascan president Marc Ravalomanana, is seeking a meeting with South African President Jacob Zuma after a plane taking him home was barred from entering the island’s airspace at the weekend. 

Madagascan airspace was closed an hour before his South African Airways flight was due to land in the country's capital.

His spokesperson Patrick Gearing, said Ravalomanana was now addressing the issue with President Zuma and Deputy Minister of International Relations Marius Fransman.

Ravalomanana who was ousted in a coup in 2009 has been living in exile in South Africa ever since.

Pretoria, through the Southern African Development Community, has been working with Madagascar on a roadmap to democracy.

Ravalomanana’s bitter rival, Andry Rajoelina, has said his government is determined to carry out an arrest warrant issued after a court last year convicted Ravalomanana in absentia of conspiracy to commit murder in a case related to the turmoil during the overthrow that forced him to leave.

Ravalomanana called the tribunal illegitimate.

In a statement, Rajoelina said his government wanted to send “a special plane to Johannesburg to bring Ravalomanana back to Madagascar so that he be brought to justice.'

Pana 23/01/2012