"It’s difficult to say the situation is under control, as it is
difficult to trace the patients once they are released; we don’t know
where they go, we don’t know whether they take risks," John Shiburi, a
South African Red Cross Society official in Musina, told IRIN.
According to health workers, nine people are still in hospital in
Musina, being treated for cholera-like symptoms. Earlier this week the
figure was 14, with the patients apparently all from Zimbabwe, where an
epidemic is raging. The South African government announced on 20
November that it was ready to help Zimbabwe "address the cholera
outbreak", and that discussions were underway with the UN World Health
Organisation and the regional Southern African Development Community.
The collapse of water and sewerage services in Zimbabwe, worsened by
uncollected refuse and the start of the rainy season, have helped the
spread of the waterborne disease.
Humanitarian officials reported a total of 2,893 people were infected
with cholera between the beginning of August and mid-November, with at
least 115 deaths.
A hard-hitting South Africa cabinet statement linked Zimbabwe’s cholera
crisis to the stalled formation of a government of national unity
between President Robert Mugabe and the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change, saying the deadlock was exacerbating the country’s
humanitarian and economic crisis. "The reported outbreak of cholera in
parts of that country is a clear indication that ordinary Zimbabweans
are the true victims of their leaders’ lack of political will and
failure to demonstrate seriousness to resolve the political impasse,"
the statement noted. Shiburi said that until the emergency in Zimbabwe
was resolved, where people were suffering an inflation rate of 231
million percent and shortages of almost every basic item, the flow of
Zimbabwean migrants into South Africa would not halt. An estimated
three million Zimbabweans, in a population of less than 12 million,
have left the country, many crossing the border into South Africa, the
regional economic powerhouse. "We’ve got two challenges: the outbreak
of cholera, and the issue of immigration. That in itself [migration] is
a challenge, but the cholera outbreak has worsened the problem. We have
[migrants here] who don’t have shelter, who don’t have accommodation,"
Shiburi noted. He added that some Zimbabweans arriving without
documentation were avoiding Musina and the authorities and "going
straight to Jo’burg", South Africa’s economic hub, to look for work.
IRIN