History of Zimbabwe may explain why in January 2007 thousands of pupils received no marks for subjects they had entered, while others were deemed "excellent" in subjects they had not sat. However as of late the education system has recovered and is still considered the best in Southern Africa. Zimbabwe held a presidential election along with a 2008 parliamentary election of 29 March. The three major candidates were incumbent President Robert Mugabe of the Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change – Tsvangirai (MDC-T), and Simba Makoni, an independent. As no candidate received an
Thabo Mbeki election in Zimbabwe prompted debate within the Commonwealth and led to a difficult decision to suspend Zimbabwe from the organisation. Mbeki supported Mugabe during this period. It is thought that Mbeki viewed Mugabe as "a victim of imperialist meddling and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) as a Western stooge." The full meeting of the Commonwealth had failed in a consensus to decide on the issue, and they tasked the previous, present (at the time), and future leaders of Commonwealth (respectively President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, John Howard of Australia, and Mbeki of South Africa) to come to a