Zimbabwe: Cholera epidemic adds more misery to Political Crisis

December 6th, 2008

The South African government is sending more military doctors to its northern border to treat Zimbabwean cholera victims fleeing their collapsing homeland for help. Cholera is an infectious intestinal disease contracted by consuming contaminated food or water. It is easily prevented and cured, but Zimbabwe’s medical and water-treatment systems have collapsed under the Mugabe regime.

The cholera disaster is linked to Zimbabwe’s political impasse and there are fears of a regional disease outbreak in Zambia, South Africa and Botswana. This has increased the pressure on longtime Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe to step down. The United Nations estimates the cholera epidemic has killed at least 575 of the at least 12,700 infected persons since August 2008.

Meanwhile, on Monday December 1, some 100 army soldiers went on a rampage, looting shops in the capital city of Harare, because of a shortage of cash and continued hunger in their homes. Neighboring Botswana is reportedly closing its embassy as a way to pressure President Mugabe to resign and end the humanitarian crisis.

Mugabe stalled efforts for a coalition government with the opposition party when he refused to share ministerial positions and recently denied entry into Zimbabwe of former U.S President Jimmy Carter, former U.N chief Kofi Anna and Graça Michel, wife of former South Africa President Nelson Mandela. The cholera crisis adds more misery to the millions of people in Zimbabwe who are already facing food shortages and hyper inflation economy.

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