Former Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe says South Africa should have sent troops instead of a team of negotiators to prevent his ouster by the military last year.
Mugabe said his regional neighbours betrayed him "in a sense", in an interview with the privately-owned Zimbabwe Independent newspaper and other regional and international media.
"When you look at their conditions, except for South Africa, they haven't got the capacity to intervene," the 94-year-old is quoted as saying.
"But South Africa could have done much more. It did not send an army, but just to engage."
Mugabe, who once quipped that he would rule until he turned 100, described his departure from office as a "coup d'etat."
"They would want us perhaps to get to the national election when the environment is still very congested with with fear, some people still hiding, displaced."