Cholera: The word that leaves even Mugabe fearful

ZIMBABWEANS are dying on the streets as a cholera epidemic, raging unchecked because of the total collapse of hospitals and sewage systems, sweeps through nine out of ten provinces.

The disease has claimed hundreds of lives of people already ravaged by famine or Aids, with the number of cholera victims crossing the Limpopo River, which forms the South Africa-Zimbabwe frontier, increasing by the hour. Many are dying on South African soil.

James McGee, the US ambassador to Zimbabwe, put the number of confirmed cholera deaths at a minimum of 294, and warned that the true toll was greater. "The overall health and food situation is frankly intolerable," he said. "Clinics in the countryside are unable to operate and are turning patients away. In some places, police have been stationed outside clinics to ensure that no-one can enter."

Mike Dziruni, who lives in the Harare township of Glen Norah, watched his nieces, Maria and Bridget Dziruni, 24 and 21, die from cholera.

He said: "It is the water we drink and the raw sewage that flows like rivers in our streets that made them sick. We don't have clean water. The government is failing us. It says we should eat hot food and boil water, but we don't have electricity and firewood is too expensive to heat food or water."

Médecins Sans Frontières, one of the few international non-governmental organisations still operating in Zimbabwe, said 1.5 million people were at risk of cholera.

The Zimbabwean Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR), blaming the Mugabe government for the catastrophe, appealed for international intervention and aid.

There are no precise statistics for the epidemic: government offices are not functioning and there is no-one to collect figures or to register births and deaths, because the infrastructure has collapsed.

Primrose Matambanadzo, the ZADHR co-ordinator, said: "We cannot continue to watch helplessly while patients die in thousands."

State hospitals in Harare, the capital, have closed after staff walked off the job over abysmal pay, horrendous working conditions and a chronic lack of essential drugs and medical materials. Most hospitals have been turning people away and most local clinics are closed.

Some wonder if this may be the disaster that finally brings down Robert Mugabe, the president. He cannot counteract the epidemic because he has presided over the total collapse of Zimbabwe's infrastructure, and has chosen international isolation over rescue bids.

Three high-profile members of Nelson Mandela's group, the Elders, will today visit Zimbabwe to assess the escalating humanitarian crisis. However, Mr Mugabe said yesterday that the Elders would not be welcome and he would not meet them.

"I wonder if they'll even get into the country," one observer commented.


Termites for teas as Zimbabwe suffers

CHILDREN near Murehwa prod sticks into a termite mound to draw out insects to eat, sweeping them into a bag for their family's evening meal.

Famine is taking hold as Zimbabwe's economy is in crisis, and a political deadlock has left the nation without a functioning government since disputed elections in March.

A power-sharing deal signed two months ago has stalled over the allocation of ministries between Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party and the opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change.

Meanwhile, the people find other ways to stave off hunger pains, such as picking up single corn kernels spilled from trucks that ferry the harvest to market. Shingirayi Chiyamite is a trader from Harare who brings household goods to the countryside to barter for crops. A 12in bar of laundry soap is exchanged for 22lb of corn.

He crisscrosses the land in search of the few villages that have corn to spare, hauls his purchases to the highway and hitchhikes back to the city. Some of the corn will feed his family, the rest he sells. He is constantly on the move. "If you rest, you starve," he says.

In a school in Doma where the class size has dwindled from 20 to four, parents pay those teachers still willing to work in corn, cooking oil, goats or chickens. One trip by bus to the nearest bank to draw their government salaries costs more than teachers earn in a month.