Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Harare (Agenzia Fides) – Cholera has become another issue in the political debate between President Robert Mugabe and the opposition party the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), led by Morgan Tsvangirai.
Mugabe left for the UN Summit in Doha (United Arab Emirates), claiming that the situation was under control. Tsvangirai, however, says that the cholera epidemic “is the greatest threat ever to face our country. Millions of people are at risk for the shortage in the coming months...the mortality rate from cholera is at 50 victims a day and it will drastically increase with the beginning of the rainy season.”
The statistics given by Tsvangirai should be compared to those of the United Nations, who report that from August to November 25, there have been 9,000 cases of cholera reported, 366 of them resulting in death. The epidemic continues because the local sanitary system is at the point of collapse. The hospitals are without medicine and various doctors and nurses have left the country for work. In the last two weeks, over 200 people infected with the disease in Zimbabwe were treated in Musina, a South African town on the border with Zimbabwe.
The regime, in addition to trying to minimize the epidemic, accused the international community, saying that the cholera “is a result of Western sanctions,” being imposed in order to force Mugabe and his crew to dialogue with the opposition.
On the political level, the situation is at a standstill. In spite of the accord signed regarding the formation of a government of national unity, Mugabe and the opposition still have not reached an agreement on the naming of key ministers, such as Interior Affairs Minister (see Fides 13/10/2008).
Mugabe wishes to proceed on his own, naming his own men as the Ministers, a solution that has been rejected by the opposition.
Among the neighboring countries, Botswana has taken the hardest position against Mugabe. Exterior Affairs Minister of Botswana, Phando Skelemani, has asked the other African nations to “make Robert Mugabe's government fall” if within a week there has not been a government of national unity formed, with participation of the opposition. Skelemani proposed that the nations of the Southern African Development Community (SADC, of which Botswana and Zimbabwe are a part) place an embargo on fuel shipments to Zimbabwe. “A week without fuel, and the regime will fall,” Skelemani said. These declarations are destined to worsen the already tense situation between the two countries. Mugabe accuses Botswana of harboring armed groups of the opposition party inside its territory. (LM) (Agenzia Fides 27/11/2008)
