Zimbabwe police beat and arrested opposition activists and a journalist during a rally Monday, witnesses said, as regional leaders met for a key summit.

Harare riot police used batons to break up a demonstration by youth from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) demanding that veteran President Robert Mugabe deliver on his pre-election promise to create two million jobs.

South Africa on Tuesday said around 250,000 Zimbabweans living in the country on temporary visas due to expire this year can get three-year extensions, delaying a possible mass expulsion of workers.

Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba said a scheme that allowed Zimbabweans to flee the political crisis at home on four-year work visas would be extended until 2017.

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe on Thursday complained that factionalism that forced him into a compromise government with his rivals five years ago was now threatening to tear his party apart.

Addressing party and government officials at an event to celebrate his ZANU-PF party's election victory last year, Mugabe described the power-sharing government with long-time rival Morgan Tsvangirai as "humiliating".

Zimbabwean police have arrested a Chinese man in possession of ivory, gold and large quantities of ammunition, a spokeswoman said Wednesday.

Wongai Huo, 51, was arrested on Tuesday with 33,000 rounds of assorted ammunition at his offices in the capital Harare, according to police spokeswoman Charity Charamba.

South African President Jacob Zuma vowed to spearhead a "radical social economic transformation" as he was sworn in for a second term before dignitaries and a cheering crowd of thousands on Saturday.

"Today marks the beginning of the second phase of our transition from apartheid to a national democratic society," he said, promising more black empowerment and a bigger economic role for the state.

Villagers and alleged war veterans aligned to Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's party have occupied a South African sugar firm's plantations in a move Harare condemned as "illegal" on Thursday.

"Scores" of people descended on South Africa-based Tongaat Hulett's estates 500 kilometers (310 miles) south east of Zimbabwe's capital on Monday, according to Lands and Rural Resettlement Minister Douglas Mombeshora.

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe will boycott next week's mammoth EU-Africa summit after his wife was denied a visa to enter Europe, a foreign ministry official said on Friday.

"We are no longer going to the EU-Africa. We disagreed on the composition of our delegation," said a source at the ministry, who asked not to be named.

Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on Tuesday said there was renewed unity within the party following talks aimed at bringing an end to months of infighting.

"We have discussed our issues and there is now unprecedented harmony and unity of purpose in the MDC cockpit," Tsvangirai told journalists in the capital Harare after a meeting of top officials of his Movement for Democratic Change.

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe on Friday vowed to crackdown on corruption involving high-profile officials at state institutions following recent damning exposures of graft, including at the national airline.

"If there was any corruption, people will answer for it, I tell you," Mugabe said at a belated party hosted by civil servants and security forces to celebrate his 90th birthday.

Former U.S. congressman Melvin Reynolds who was recently deported from Zimbabwe after being convicted of overstaying his visa on Friday claimed Zimbabwean authorities suspect he is a spy.

Speaking on the phone from South Africa, Reynolds said he believed Zimbabwe secret agents "are moving around looking for me."