HARARE, Sept 14, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Zimbabwe’s opposition MDC party
Friday called off plans to hold a mock inauguration to name its leader Nelson
Chamisa as the country’s president after public gatherings were banned due to
a cholera outbreak.
The MDC had planned the event to highlight its claims that the July 30
election was rigged and that Chamisa was the rightful president, rather than
President Emmerson Mnangagwa of the ruling ZANU-PF.
The MDC accused the government of using the cholera outbreak, which has
claimed 25 lives, to stop the mock inauguration at the party’s 19th
anniversary celebrations.
Authorities have banned public gatherings in Harare as a health measure.
“The Movement for Democratic Change has postponed its 19th anniversary
celebrations,” party spokesman Jacob Mafume said in a statement.
“It is clear that the government is abusing the cholera epidemic for
political purposes and puts into serious doubt that the ban of our
commemoration event was out of genuine concern.”
The cholera outbreak, first detected in the township of Glen View outside
Harare earlier this month, prompted the health ministry to declare an
emergency in the city after at least 3,000 cases were reported.
The disease has since spread to other towns as well as rural areas across
the country.
Cholera outbreaks have occurred regularly in Zimbabwe’s cities as
authorities struggle to provide potable water and sanitation facilities.
Zimbabwe, which was ruled by Robert Mugabe from independence in 1980
until his ousting last year, suffered its worst cholera outbreak in 2008.
A total of 4,000 people died and at least 100,000 people fell ill.
Mnangagwa has pledged to tackle the current outbreak.
Zimbabwe’s largest university postponed its graduation ceremony on
Friday.
A World Health Organization situation report revealed that first-line
antibiotics were struggling to treat the disease, which has spread to five of
the country’s 10 provinces.