President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa promised to meet President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe to express his "serious concern" yesterday as the furious crackdown on opposition figures spread to the country's main tourist centre.
The intensifying campaign of intimidation, which has seen two foreign journalists expelled and the country's Chief Justice ousted in recent weeks, is "impacting negatively" on South Africa, Mr Mbeki said at a conference near Cape Town.
The statement ends Mr Mbeki's reluctance to criticise one of his closest neighbours, following a sharp drop in foreign investment as a result of the government-led violence in Zimbabwe.
However, Mr Mugabe's campaign to crush his political opponents is stepping up. Police arrested the opposition MP for Victoria Falls on the eve of celebrations to mark Mr Mugabe's 77th birthday on Saturday.
After Mr Mugabe's birthday rally, during which he railed against "evil forces" that seek to "perpetuate their colonial hold", the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said that police had arrested a further 143 of its supporters for carrying the party's red cards.
Victoria Falls is home to one of Africa's most spectacular sights and the jewel of the Zimbabwean tourist industry.
Until last week it had been spared that intimidation and fear that have blighted the rest of the country.
But the illusion of tranquility has been shattered.
An MDC activist, Mr Ben Tessa, pointed out the flashpoints of recent trouble.
"Over there, that's the council offices that were invaded by the war veterans a few weeks ago. To the left is the petrol station whose white manager was ordered to leave recently. And on the other side is the police station where 13 of our supporters were locked up last night."
"Up to now we had an understanding with Zanu-PF to live peacefully in the interest of tourism," said the freed MDC MP, Mr Peter Nyoni, a couple of hours after an army helicopter ominously droned over the town. "But now that is finished."
Tourists are one of the few remaining sources of foreign currency in Zimbabwe's crumbling economy but few dare to venture into a country where fear has become the instrument of rule.
The Victoria Falls Hotel, a luxurious relic of colonial rule, was built in 1904.
Most of its rooms are empty but the manager declined to be interviewed, citing strict instructions from his head office.
Fear of reprisals had also spread to the poorest areas of town.
In a slum area known as DRC after the Democratic Republic of Congo, "a place of suffering and misery" one man explained, people refused to speak to reporters because of intimidation by war veterans.
Meanwhile in Harare, the visiting British Conservative Party shadow foreign secretary, Mr Francis Maude, called for Zimbabwe's suspension from the Commonwealth.
"It gives Mugabe a veneer of respectability he doesn't deserve in a country where the rule of law is clearly being flouted," he said.
Mr Maude also called for an international travel ban on Mugabe's supporters, an investigation into their overseas assets and a wide-ranging probe into human rights abuses.