Only last week, according to the BBC, the Zimbabwean government said that the cholera epidemic rampaging through the country since August and making news since late October was not an emergency. Now a national emergency has officially been declared, reports the local state-controlled Herald. Economic ruin under Mugabe’s regime has closed hospitals and apparently left the country helpless in the face of a treatable disease.
The Herald says health minister David Parirenyatwa told a meeting of potential donors that hospitals lack drugs, food, equipment, and cash to pay their dwindling staff. The UN says that since August at least 565 people have died and 12,545 cases have been recorded (BBC).
“Our central hospitals are literally not functioning,” Parirenyatwa said. “Our staff is demotivated and we need your support to ensure that they start coming to work and our health system is revived.” He said that 450 renal patients require dialysis and asked for infusions of US$1.5 million per month for the staff.
The New York Times puts the cholera emergency in the context of a calamitous week:
The news emerged a day after riot police officers brandishing batons charged into a group of 100 doctors and nurses on Wednesday in Harare, the capital, breaking up a demonstration for better pay and working conditions in a nation suffering from both the cholera outbreak and an economy in free fall.
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To add to the chaos, soldiers, angered at the meagerness of their deflated pay, on Monday rampaged through central Harare, breaking windows, looting stores and robbing the money changers who deal in foreign currency. Armed police officers had to disperse the marauding troops with tear gas.
Harare residents must drink from sewage-contaminated wells and streams, reports the Independent, because the water system has collapsed.
The World Health Organization will be sending in a team of workers, and neighbouring South Africa is also offering help (Independent).
The Times reports that other African nations are openly talking about toppling Mugabe. “It’s time for African governments to take decisive action to push him out of power,” Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga said yesterday.