HARARE (AFP) – Zimbabwe's worsening cholera epidemic has killed more than 3,000 people and is the world's worst in 14 years, the UN said Wednesday, as the main opposition cast new doubts on a power-sharing deal.
The cholera outbreak has seen more than 57,000 infected and 3,028 killed, the World Health Organisation said in its latest update.The new death toll represents an increase of more than 1,000 deaths in just the past 15 days, a stark illustration of Zimbabwe’s political and economic crisis that shows little sign of abating.
South Africa on Tuesday had trumpeted the latest proposed deal between Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, reached after marathon talks during a regional summit.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) told the feuding parties to install a unity government by mid-February, but Tsvangirai has warned that the deal could be derailed by long-running disputes over key ministries.
On his return to Harare Wednesday, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader called for unity in his party as it prepared to decide on the regional proposal.
“It’s a historic decision, and I hope that the party will be united in ensuring that we respond to the needs on the ground and people’s expectations,” he told reporters in Harare.
Tsvangirai earlier told South Africa’s Star newspaper that negotiators from the different parties would meet in Harare on Thursday to try to resolve the outstanding issues.
Those issues include the distribution of cabinet posts, the naming of provincial governors, and the control of security agencies.
The MDC’s leadership then plans to meet Friday to decide whether to commit to the new timeline and form a unity government.
One of the South African mediators, top presidential aide Frank Chikane, told journalists the outstanding issues around key cabinet appointments would be dealt with this week.
He urged parties to form the government to tackle the cholera epidemic and to rein in a growing humanitarian crisis that has left half the population in need of food aid.
“The key thing is that the leadership must go back to their constituencies and report back and say this is what has come out of that process and for the sake of the people of Zimbabwe let us agree, form the government, because we can solve most problems when we are in government,” said Chikane.
The summit called for Tsvangirai to be sworn in as prime minister, with Mugabe as president, by February 11, and for the unity cabinet to take office by February 13.
SADC leaders hope to pressure Mugabe and Tsvangirai into a unity government, following disputed elections last year.
The two rivals signed an agreement on September 15 to share power, and have remained deadlocked over the allocation of the key home affairs ministry, changes to the constitution and opposition allegations of abductions and arrests of its members.
The United States and the European Union have slapped sanctions on Mugabe and his inner circle over the crisis, blaming the 84-year-old for deadly political violence and for allowing the country to crumble under the weight of the world’s highest inflation.
Religious leaders have also piled pressure on Mugabe, with Catholic bishops Wednesday calling on him to resign so that new presidential elections can be held.
“Zimbabwe has moved from a crisis to a disaster to passive genocide,” the archbishop of Johannesburg, Buti Tlhagale, said in a statement.
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