HARARE, Zimbabwe — A day after the Zimbabwean Army detained President Robert Mugabe, representatives of South Africa and the Roman Catholic Church on Thursday sought to defuse the crisis in closed-door negotiations aimed at producing some kind of transitional settlement.

President Jacob G. Zuma of South Africa told lawmakers in his own country that the situation “very shortly will be coming clear,” as an array of activist groups and political opponents of Mr. Mugabe urged him to step aside peacefully.

Feeling their way through uncharted territory after the military placed Mr. Mugabe under house arrest, Zimbabweans ventured into streets patrolled by armored vehicles and awaited some kind of signal of what a new era might bring.