Mugabe Declares, "There Is No Cholera"

Spokesman For Zimbabwe's President Says Remark Was Sarcastic

(CBS/AP)  President Robert Mugabe declared that Zimbabwe's cholera crisis was over Thursday, even as the United Nations raised the official death toll from the epidemic to 783.

Mugabe's spokesman later said his much-criticized remark was misunderstood, state media reported Friday.

Friday's Herald newspaper quoted Mugabe's spokesman George Charamaba as saying Mugabe had been sarcastic and wanted to make the point that the crisis was contained.

Mugabe's comments Thursday drew strong criticism from the United States and Britain; the U.S. ambassador to Zimbabwe said it showed "how out of touch he is with the reality" in Zimbabwe.

The United Nations, though, said Friday that the death toll from the waterborne disease had risen to 792 and that the number of cases had increased to 16,700.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that he "cannot agree" with Mugabe's assessment that the epidemic has ended.

Cholera has spread rapidly in the southern African nation because of the country's crumbling health care system and the lack of clean water. The U.N. said 16,403 cases have been reported.

Just last week, Zimbabwe declared a national health emergency due to the cholera outbreak and the collapse of its health services.

At a state funeral Thursday for a ruling party official, Mugabe insisted the outbreak of the waterborne disease had been "arrested" with the help of the World Health Organization and other aid agencies.

Mugabe lashed out at critics who have been calling for his ouster - and even military intervention - as concerns about Zimbabwe's deepening humanitarian crisis mounted.

"So now that there is no cholera, there is no cause for war anymore. We need doctors, not soldiers," he said during an hour-long address broadcast live on state television.

Mugabe has ruled his country since its 1980 independence from Britain and has refused to leave office following disputed elections in March. A power-sharing deal worked out in September with the opposition has been deadlocked over how to divide up Cabinet posts.

His latest rosy assessment of the cholera outbreak was in stark contrast to statements by health officials in the region.

"We have a cholera challenge and it's of a massive magnitude in Zimbabwe," said Thami Mseleku, a senior health official in neighboring South Africa. "There have been challenges of cholera in Zimbabwe, like every other country, and they have been able to manage them. This one is of a magnitude that is unprecedented."

President Bush, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy all have called recently for the 84-year-old leader to step down.

Britain's Africa minister Mark Malloch-Brown also rejected Mugabe's claim that the cholera crisis was over.

"I don't know what world he is living in," Malloch-Brown said during a one-day trip to South Africa, where he visited a Johannesburg church housing 1,600 Zimbabweans who have fled the economic meltdown.

"There is a raging humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe as well as an economic crisis and still there is no representative government able to lead the country out of this disaster," he said.

Malloch-Brown called on South Africa to put more pressure on Mugabe to end the political and humanitarian crisis. South Africa has withheld $30 million in aid for Zimbabwe but otherwise has been reluctant to use its huge economic and political muscle against its neighbor.

"South Africa could do a lot more and it needs to do it now," said Malloch-Brown, who also met South African Health Minister Barbara Hogan, who is trying to contain the spread of cholera from across the border. He was also due to meet President Kgalema Motlanthe.

South African authorities have declared an area along the cholera-hit border with Zimbabwe a disaster as the disease spreads to other countries in the region.

About 664 people have been treated for the waterborne disease and at least eight people have died in South Africa. Hundreds of Zimbabweans cross the border at Beitbridge every day to search for jobs in South Africa, buy supplies and increasingly seek medical treatment.

Phandu Skelemani, foreign minister of neighboring Botswana, which has been critical of Mugabe, said his country's border with Zimbabwe should remain open but he supported other measures to isolate Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party.

"If you switch off petrol (gasoline), I think that ZANU-PF will have to go. If that step is agreed and you then simultaneously airlift critical supplies like food and essential supplies to prevent Zimbabweans from starving to death, I think it will have desired effect," Skelemani told The Associated Press on Thursday.

Meanwhile, France said authorities in Zimbabwe have refused visas to six French envoys who were to provide humanitarian assistance with the cholera outbreak.

[downsteamjim]

Mugabe''s plan to ''share the wealth'' was a complete disaster. There is no reason to believe that Obama''s ''share the wealth'' plan will not have the same result.

[stephenroger]

You have to love the power of the internet.
Here I am in the land down under reading comments from all over the world. The fantasies and realities of people''s thoughts are easily available.
I believe that history in the future will have show that Mr Mugabe will be reviled like Idi Amin but for different reasons.
For now he is supported by people who are acting for their own beliefs, loyalties or self interests. When he is gone there will be much work to be done by Zimbabweans to resurrect a unique country.
Just go Mr Mugabe, you tried but you failed as a human.

[jimandvictor]

Clathrat...

Have you read much about what caused all the economic problems we had today. Weak goverment regulations passed during the Clinton administration to promote homeownership was what caused Freddie and Fannie to give mortgages to people who could not possibly afford them...thus the key causes of the financial meltdown...fact. Democrats acknowledge the two goverment-sponsored companies contributed to the financial crisis. So get off of Bush blame train and do some research...this crisis was a long time coming.

Let us not forget Barney Frank as who called one of Fannie Maes head executives Herb Moses his spouse....eeeewww...pushed much of this craziness through congress. Even though some Demos and a lot of republicans tried to impose tighter regulations on the two companies they were thwarted by powerful lobbyists. I must admit two of the lobbyists(there were many from both parties) were New Gingrich and Alphonse D''Amoto...stinkers.

[clathrate]

Mugabe and Bush have a lot in common. They''re both walking, talking pieces of $hit that systematically destroyed the economy in their countries.

[smurfcrusher]

Unfortunately, lies do not change reality.

[whitemale08]

I WISH BRITISH IDIOTS LIKE SO-CALLED LORD MALLOCH WILL KEEP THEIR PASTY F*CKIN'' HANDS OFF AFRICA!!!!!

AFRICA DOES NOT NEED TO EXPORT THEIR SOVERIEGN FOOD AND RESOURCES TO THESE BIRD-POOP FACES IN ENGLAND!!!

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!!

[downsteamjim]

Mugabe is pro cholera. He is trying to prove that his administration is not full of sh*t.

[downsteamjim]

HETUP: You are on a roll, don''t stop now. I want to know their connect to Leprechans, Betty Bop, and Bigfoot.

[downsteamjim]

HETUP: Tell us more about the Israelis and the Black Caucus. I enjoy reading wacko conspriacy theories.

[downsteamjim]

Where is the U.S. Congressional Black Caucas?

[tincup356]

to hetup, where does Bush have the right to criticize anyone for being a screw up? Bush probably told him..you''re doing a bang up job there, just like he did old brownie.

[global_eye]

Most of current world leaders are stuck in greedy, selfish, competitive ways of the past. They are ignorant and lack vision.

However, help is coming - Enlightened men who can offer unusual insight to solve humanity''s biggest problems

*** BREAKING WORLD NEWS! A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE ***

http://www.WakeUpMankind.org

[juwboy]

Today, Mugabe is claiming the the cause of the cholera epidemic is germ warfare by the Brits.

[cheetah-man7]

Am I the only one here who is questioning why this idiot has not been shot dead yet? I find it impossible to believe that with all the warring factions and nations in Africa, that someone with a rifle or even a blow dart can''t put this guy down. Come on, Africa - get with the program!

will someone please assinate this ***--this vermin.

[leeanna58]

We should leave Africa to its misery and in doing so lessen some of our own.

Posted by presjfk

I can''t go over there and do anything about it, so I guess I''m leaving them to their misery. I can only help the people around me.

[lloydbest1]

And whoever is deleting "Rowdy''s" posts..I wish (s)he would stop.
I understand they are annoying and there is a lot of bovine detritus to them but she''s not that far off topic and we who rebut her stuff''n''nonsense (such as my previous post) have lost the reference to hang our own comments on.
Sorry, but idiocy is not an excuse for censorship.
Besises she''ll only come back under another pseudonym, more millitant and aggrieved than before.

[leeanna58]

If there was ever a carricature of Satan personified, it is Mugabe. He looks like he cavorts with devils. If he looks like one, and he talks like one, and he acts like one . . . .

[lloydbest1]

Posted by RowdynTex at 05:56 PM : Dec 12, 2008

Don''t ruin a good story by over embellishing it.

I have read up on Mr. Odinga. Yeah, he''s a slippery piece of work and, yeah, he''s a Muslim but there is NO evidence the Odinga-man or any of his surrogates stole any food or medicine from Zimbabwe. There wasn''t enough of either there to make such a theft profitable.
And what''s this fetish with Muslims about, anyway? Do you really think they are all about blowing themselves up in the name of "Allah" or spending vast sums of money and bloodshed to take over a country that any well heeled Saudi oil sheik could PURCHASE for the equivalent of a few Riyals?
Odinga may not be (is almost certainly not) a nice man, but to suggest he waltzed in and ripped off medical and food supplies from a country that had little or none to begin with is insanity.

This, of course says nothing about the immediate cause of Zimbabwe''s misery:
The gross mismanagement on the part of an aging leader who has lost whatever credibility he had 20 years ago through his slavish indulgences for his loyal elite (and his talentless relatives), brutal suppression of any kind of loyal opposition, his absolute disregard for any kind of infrastructure maintenance and his blatant ignorance of elementary agricultural practises.

[cntrymuzksux]

nope