South Africa P.I.G.: CHOLERA

Showing posts with label CHOLERA. Show all posts

Cholera found in Jo'burg River

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwgpNSbPPCPQskB7j2QT7dqFVTHCT1ZGQuR9oj5d5WR9ee8cvGzGF52v4K0whB5Z35CsT4HfgKse_Pa62iODLPhzN9I8aMqvIrYXvL6xfoRqcEfkKNuthyphenhyphencZdwi81OsrG9c8k3TewTJnA/s1600-h/Braamfonteinmapsc007.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5316708800858409602" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwgpNSbPPCPQskB7j2QT7dqFVTHCT1ZGQuR9oj5d5WR9ee8cvGzGF52v4K0whB5Z35CsT4HfgKse_Pa62iODLPhzN9I8aMqvIrYXvL6xfoRqcEfkKNuthyphenhyphencZdwi81OsrG9c8k3TewTJnA/s400/Braamfonteinmapsc007.jpg" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 290px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" /></a> An independent water sample taken from the Jukskei River has revealed the presence of cholera but the Department of Water Affairs has yet to confirm the presence of the waterborne disease. Paul Fairall, an environmental consultant and the chairman of the Jukskei River catchment area management forum, received the results last week of two samples he had drawn from the river. One of the samples, taken from the Dewetshof area, below Bezuidenhout Valley, showed signs of a strain of cholera. The second sample, taken from the Jukskei in Marlboro, was clear. Fairall said it was "the result of a tragic situation where you have thousands of refugees living in the centre of Johannesburg". On Monday the department said it had not found cholera in the Jukskei but it would begin testing for the disease. "With all the faecal pollution found in the Jukskei it is likely that cholera could be detected," said Leonardo Manus, manager of drinking water quality regulation at the department. He said regional staff would need to highlight to communities most at risk to cholera the dangers of drinking untreated water.

Cholera found in Jo'burg River

An independent water sample taken from the Jukskei River has revealed the presence of cholera but the Department of Water Affairs has yet to...

3:38 AM

SA spends millions to combat cholera

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4dA9iRfqW9IpA_l0uZJfDzPfkd2nXekIDdghrtTZKIn1uC3Mdak0DA4FynNtiGtgCPKc63k6I3mJi3eGKNnG8-o-XcS3IHfZzhtCkSjxMq9vrjtsafni-5XzwM6vqn3842KIf89dK-Ls/s1600-h/cholera-article.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308763298635006722" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4dA9iRfqW9IpA_l0uZJfDzPfkd2nXekIDdghrtTZKIn1uC3Mdak0DA4FynNtiGtgCPKc63k6I3mJi3eGKNnG8-o-XcS3IHfZzhtCkSjxMq9vrjtsafni-5XzwM6vqn3842KIf89dK-Ls/s400/cholera-article.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 120px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px" /></a>About R21 million has been spent on controlling the cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe and a further R80 million will be allocated to affected areas, Water Affairs and Forestry Minister Lindiwe Hendricks said Monday. Speaking at the launch of the Water For Growth and Development Framework in Johannesburg, Hendricks said water tankers, engineers and technicians were sent to Zimbabwe to repair infrastructure and ensure access to clean drinking water in response to the cholera outbreak. The framework was approved by Cabinet in January. She added that if remedial action was not taken Gauteng could experience water shortages from 2013 to 2025. "Fortunately this will not happen given the recent decision by Cabinet to proceed with the second phase of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project. "We have made much progress and we are confident that the universal access to water and sanitation services will be completed by 2014," she said. According to the department of water affairs and forestry, a programme was launched last year to deal with the illegal abstraction of water and water pollution. Hendricks said all tap water in South Africa is safe to drink, even though at times it does not meet technical standards. "Of the 3000 samples taken nationwide, about 94 to 98 percent complied with the SA National Standards of drinking water. "The failing six percent of the samples do not persistently occur in the same location but varies across the country. In some areas, this may be due to a stolen or broken water pump. "To address this, a further amount of about R4 billion has been allocated to deal with the upgrading and augmenting of municipal infrastructure," she said. .....The Dept of Water Affairs and Forestry calmly assures us that <a href="http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=698448" target="_new">there is no water crisis</a>. But should we believe them based on a government track record of denial or blithe reassurance? <img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308763065411954802" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcpEVb7GWb8z9AUj7dXtxMmhu-ngz2hfu9OWHmDqlAIS4j5PxW2GuWylmqknQxwaRskaLJWhpiM399E_tfQk50Zk2lyWrQ-_ndqndJ5yHRE3RENMMZPH5zEbHVtyXI1vCtZO_JCiZv9CY/s400/carp.jpg" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 274px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" /> Dead carp in Wonderfontein spruit: pic courtesy Paul Neal (Dream Africa)Dept of Safety and Security: Crime? No problem there, just lots of whingeing. Dept of Health: HIV / Aids? Beetroot, garlic and the african potato to the rescue. Dept of Minerals and Energy: Electricity? It should all be okay as long as our economic growth stays at 2%? Reports of 43 percent of DWAF managed dams having safety issues sounds pretty critical to me. Or what do they propose a safe tolerance level is for a water-stressed country? 60%? 80%? 43% sounds bad enough and I'd like to know what is being done to fix the problems especially in light of Peter van Niekerk, chief director of water resources planning at DWAF, commenting, "we have constructed some dams but nothing to the same extent because of much greater use is the opportunity to manage demand." Sounds suspiciously like <strike>load shedding</strike> rationing to me.More concerning is the contamination of ground water by radioactive mining waste in the Wonderfonteinspruit area. This is particularly worrying as the issue of uranium contamination... See Video - <a class="l" href="http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6085154693477011286" onmousedown="return clk(this.href,'','','res','9','&sig2=7Wkgz44CNFMX88EHEmybwg')">Wonderfontein Spruit Gold Mining Pollution Contamination</a> A documentary covering the contamination of the Wonderfontein Spruit South African government denies health hazard from contaminated water in the Wonderfonteinspruit catchment area - despite scientific evidence presented at international conference.<div align="left">According to press reports, the Department of Water Affairs claimed on Sep. 17, 2008, that "radioactive waste outside mining areas in the catchment of the Wonderfonteinspruit poses no risk to the public, according to experts." The experts had been brought in by the department and the National Nuclear Regulator (NNR). (IOL, Sep. 17, 2008)</div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"> Regulator denies water and foodstuffs in the Wonderfonteinspruit catchment area are radioactive - despite scientific reports.</div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"> Regulator withholds report on serious contamination of water and food from mining activities in Gauteng.</div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"> Mining companies under encouragement by the South African Government now want to mine Uranium on a vast scale all around South Africa.</div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"> See Business Times <a href="http://www.thetimes.co.za/PrintEdition/BusinessTimes/Article.aspx?id=697126" target="_new">story</a> </div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><center> </center><div align="left"></div>

SA spends millions to combat cholera

About R21 million has been spent on controlling the cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe and a further R80 million will be allocated to affected are...

8:50 AM

Zim's horror on film

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcVRVaQwJ7tkvWNrW_dGwWjN9XIImbqYBaLCJpBaMBeiXiX7YJVEMBkxuYBBRzBPEczpnvOxRro6x-jt4XB3MrK_OYzcntfuix-1a3u1SIkxHPTNtLTbSmWr6EsC-pxSRJ9clrVptSi5A/s1600-h/zimbabwe-graves.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308380378128873938" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcVRVaQwJ7tkvWNrW_dGwWjN9XIImbqYBaLCJpBaMBeiXiX7YJVEMBkxuYBBRzBPEczpnvOxRro6x-jt4XB3MrK_OYzcntfuix-1a3u1SIkxHPTNtLTbSmWr6EsC-pxSRJ9clrVptSi5A/s400/zimbabwe-graves.jpg" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 266px" /></a>A new Guardian film, smuggled out of the country, exposes horrors of man-made epidemic claiming thousands of lives <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2009/feb/26/zimbabwe-cholera" name="&lid={inBodyVideo}{Link to this video}&lpos={inBodyVideo}{1}">Link to this video</a> <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/cholera">Cholera</a> is one of the most visible signs of <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/zimbabwe">Zimbabwe</a>'s collapse. It has claimed thousands of lives, infected tens of thousands of other people and left millions of impoverished, half-starved Zimbabweans living in fear of their own drinking water. But Robert Mugabe has tried to make cholera an invisible disease, hiding the dying in hastily erected treatment centres, behind barbed wire and police guards, and burying the victims away from prying foreign eyes. The president declared the epidemic over even as the numbers of dead were growing ever more rapidly, and claimed the spread of the disease was all a British plot. Now a new Guardian film, smuggled out of the country, reveals what Zimbabwe's autocratic leader does not want seen: the stark reality of life, and death, in the midst of a cholera outbreak that Médecins Sans Frontières only last week called part of a "massive medical emergency that is spiralling out of control". See Full Story - <a class="link-text" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/26/zimbabwe-cholera-mugabe" name="&lid={trailItemImageAndTrailText}{Mugabe splashes out on birthday bash as cholera spirals out of control}&lpos={trail}{1}">Zimbabwe: Cholera country</a> <a href="http://www.mg.co.za/section/article/2009-02-28-zims-horror-on-film">Zim's horror on film</a> A new Guardian film, smuggled out of the country, reveals what Zimbabwe’s autocratic leader does not want seen. - <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2009/feb/26/zimbabwe-cholera" name="&lid={inBodyVideo}{Link to this video}&lpos={inBodyVideo}{1}">Link to this video</a> Source: guardian.co.uk <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian" name="&lid={contentTypeByline}{The Guardian}&lpos={contentTypeByline}{2}">The Guardian,</a> Thursday 26 February 2009

Zim's horror on film

A new Guardian film, smuggled out of the country, exposes horrors of man-made epidemic claiming thousands of lives Link to this video Chole...

8:05 AM

Report calls for Mugabe to be charged

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrrWwKRxHXqDNFOmkhMpuFwhGun1iu2T3lCkn3ZQ_kU5VMjrnYMq7ixYEp1bBC31Z_jePvteqTFsqLSzPGdmoz_6y2OXr-OROy5lkE4KSATXHd3ZEbCtR7qNehR_HsyIFIitEFUx7I3eo/s1600-h/mugabe+in+jail%5B1%5D.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5306141822581173922" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrrWwKRxHXqDNFOmkhMpuFwhGun1iu2T3lCkn3ZQ_kU5VMjrnYMq7ixYEp1bBC31Z_jePvteqTFsqLSzPGdmoz_6y2OXr-OROy5lkE4KSATXHd3ZEbCtR7qNehR_HsyIFIitEFUx7I3eo/s400/mugabe+in+jail%5B1%5D.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 307px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 280px" /></a>BOSTON — The mounting movement for Robert Mugabe to be charged with crimes against humanity will be boosted this week by a report that finds the Zimbabwean dictator is responsible for criminal neglect that caused the country’s deadly cholera epidemic. Mugabe is culpable for dismantling Zimbabwe’s health and sanitation services and thereby provoking the cholera outbreak that has killed more than 2,000 people to date and could kill as many as 5,000 people if left unchecked, according to a new report by Physicians for Human Rights to be released this week. The doctors’ damning report, provided exclusively to GlobalPost, adds momentum to the growing international campaign for the Mugabe regime to be charged with crimes against humanity. Mugabe should be charged with crimes for “presiding over the destruction of a health system and an economy. It is not mismanagement, it is calculated. It is criminal,” said Frank Donaghue, chief executive of the Massachusetts-based Physicians for Human Rights, which will issue its report Jan. 13 in Johannesburg and New York. “Mugabe spends money on the military and intelligence services that keep him in power instead of on the medical and sanitation services essential to the health of the population,” said Donaghue. “The Mugabe government created the grounds for the cholera epidemic by allowing the water supply system to break down, by not repairing broken sewer pipes and allowing public water to become contaminated, by closing hospitals and allowing the entire health system to collapse,” he added. “Cholera is not just a disease, it’s a crime,” said Donaghue, who was part of the investigative team that visited Zimbabwe at the end of December. If a United Nations tribunal on Zimbabwe were launched, observers in southern Africa believe it would bring crucial international pressure that could speed the end of the Zimbabwean president’s 28-year rule. The International Bar Association, Amnesty International, the anti-torture group Redress, the South African Council of Churches and the South African Catholic Bishops Conference have all urged the United Nations Security Council to investigate Mugabe for crimes against humanity. The physicians’ report includes a statements of support from South African Nobel-winning archbishop Desmond Tutu and Mary Robinson, formerly the United Nations commissioner for human rights and Irish prime minister. While in Zimbabwe the team of medical experts interviewed more than 90 people, ranging from doctors and health specialists to ordinary Zimbabweans seeking health care. Human Rights Watch has documented numerous actions and policies by the Mugabe government that it says constitute crimes. “There is no question that the Mugabe government has committed serious crimes for which Mugabe and other officials must be held accountable,” said Tiseke Kasambala, senior researcher for Human Rights Watch. “There is ample evidence of the crimes and there are international conventions which make it possible to bring them to justice,” said Kasambala, from her office in Johannesburg. Some experts in international law question whether there is enough evidence to indict Mugabe and point out that the International Criminal Court has not established a strong track record of convictions. “It will not be easy but it is necessary,” said Kasambala. Mugabe could be charged by the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands or by a special United Nations tribunal, according to Kasambala. Human Rights Watch has a legal team that is investigating the best way to bring Mugabe to justice. Zimbabwe has not signed the convention on international crimes but once there is a new government in Zimbabwe, it could ask the ICC to investigate and charge Mugabe. The United Nations Security Council can order an investigation into crimes in Zimbabwe and form a special tribunal. “A U.N. tribunal would have more powers and scope to look at violations that constitute crimes against humanity,” said Kasambala. Mark Ellis, executive director of the International Bar Association, agrees that Mugabe should be investigated for crimes against humanity. “The legal basis for holding Mugabe accountable is straightforward,” said Ellis. He said the UN Security Council should immediately authorize the ICC to investigate Mugabe and serious crimes committed in Zimbabwe. Crimes against humanity are defined as a widespread attack against a civilian population, usually as part of a government plan. These crimes include killing, sexual violence, torture, displacement and using the distribution of food as a political weapon or depriving housing and medical care to those who oppose the government. A UN tribunal brought former Liberian dictator Charles Taylor to trial. Taylor is currently on trial for crimes against humanity and war crimes before a UN special tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands. Taylor is the first ex-African head of state to appear before an international tribunal. “Mugabe has a history of crimes that go back to the 1980s in Matabeleland,” said Kasambala, referring to what is known as the Matabeleland Massacres, in which a special army brigade under Mugabe’s command went on a four-year campaign in southern Zimbabwe in which an estimated 10,000 people of the Ndebele ethnic minority were murdered, according to a report by the Zimbabwean Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace. In addition to direct state violence against opposition groups, the Physicians for Human Rights report says that Mugabe should also be charged with policies calculated to cause the deaths of thousands of Zimbabweans. The dismantling of Zimbabwe’s once excellent health and sanitation services, which brought about the current cholera epidemic, is one example, report the Physicians for Human Rights. Another example is Mugabe’s 2005 campaign in which the army bulldozed tens of thousands of homes in urban townships, which are bastions of support for the opposition. More than 700,000 homes and businesses were destroyed, affecting more than two million people, according to a UN investigation. Many of those made homeless later died of disease or malnutrition, say human rights activists in Zimbabwe. In the current cholera epidemic, more than 40,000 Zimbabweans have been infected with cholera and it is expected that 60,000 will fall ill with the disease before the epidemic is brought under control, according to the World Health Organization, which issues weekly bulletins on the situation. The disease has spread to all 10 of the country’s provinces and to neighboring countries of Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa and Zambia. The cholera bacteria is so rife in Zimbabwe that it has contaminated the main reservoir for Harare and also the Limpopo River, which forms the border between Zimbabwe and South Africa. Ordinarily cholera is fatal to about one percent of those who contract the disease. But Zimbabwe’s death rate is five percent because of the shortage of clean water, medical facilities and the high levels of malnutrition and disease already prevalent among the population. As a result of disease and malnutrition, the average life expectancy of Zimbabwean women has dropped from 61 to 34 years, which is the lowest in the world, according to WHO. The Mugabe government has closed three of Zimbabwe’s four major public hospitals. The hospitals in Harare and Bulawayo until recently were among the best in Africa. Without money, the hospitals ran out of drugs and doctors and nurses were not paid. In November the hospitals had no running water and by December they were closed. “The cholera that we see in Zimbabwe is a symptom of a much broader problem, the collapse of the country’s health system, the closure of hospitals, growing levels of malnutrition and the collapse of the economy,” said Donaghue, who has visited Zimbawe several times in the past year. “Unquestionably Mugabe and his officials must be held accountable for the destruction of the health care system and the drop in life expectancy,” said Donaghue, who will be in Johannesburg to release the report. He called on the United Nations to take action to resolve the Zimbabwean crisis. Donaghue said it is “tragic” that China, Russia and South Africa have prevented the United Nations Security Council from considering the Zimbabwean crisis. “We are seeing Zimbabwe’s people die in very high numbers,” said Donaghue. “International bodies must act to stop the ongoing massacre.” Source: <a class="recent" href="http://www.thehawaiiindependent.com/regions/2009/02/19/report-calls-for-mugabe-to-be-charged/" title="Report calls for Mugabe to be charged">Report calls for Mugabe to be charged</a>

Report calls for Mugabe to be charged

BOSTON — The mounting movement for Robert Mugabe to be charged with crimes against humanity will be boosted this week by a report that finds...

9:33 AM

Only one way to end Mugabe's evil

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisiOU42sAfHn822wyUX8ZsuP1yRd2EZ-AOqODg2pwOKu_mt-onqs3a9hN6AVrffEs_plpEqD3qroHPpR5_1Fi3qu-l8jN9I_qMyOnxwVesW8Gg0sTWGCgOogtN4wyQnl4xslNihN807r8/s1600-h/zim-leader.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288294824401097586" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisiOU42sAfHn822wyUX8ZsuP1yRd2EZ-AOqODg2pwOKu_mt-onqs3a9hN6AVrffEs_plpEqD3qroHPpR5_1Fi3qu-l8jN9I_qMyOnxwVesW8Gg0sTWGCgOogtN4wyQnl4xslNihN807r8/s400/zim-leader.jpg" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 301px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" /></a> <div align="center">The leader who betrayed his people: Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe</div> LONG after you leave Zimbabwe, images linger in the mind, harrowing and ineradicable. An emaciated old woman making "soup" from weeds for her orphaned grandchildren; desperate parents foraging in the bush for a handful of desiccated berries; young men defying crocodiles to catch a handful of tiny fish in the Zambezi; the corpses of cholera victims trussed up in black plastic sheeting; the ubiquitous and debilitated AIDS victims; perfunctory funerals in Harare's cemetery while fresh graves are dug. <img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288292621758774482" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL9_Dc_NT3cJn0dNYYJtzRmSWa3njM6icE_MuwQ4BkPFBPL9vD-3IZtNI3d_R25dIR_NG9O1ueCtb258b0TFLuMQVr7cAyIhMBN8-MFV7Qkk2Ac_Ejqy_AiOakDTg0xlQpZPtY9fkIJT4/s400/zim+cholera-graves.jpg" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 344px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" />Stella Manhando with her grandson in Mbare, Harare, at the grave of Stella's daughter Shamiso who died from cholera three weeks agoThe pathetic attempts to grow vegetables on scraps of common land; the queues desperate to withdraw a few pennies from banks before their money loses all its value; the listlessness and despair of a crushed and broken people; the anguish of priests, doctors and aid workers overwhelmed by this tsunami of suffering ... There are other images, too. Of once bountiful farms plundered then abandoned by Robert Mugabe's cronies, fields vanishing beneath the encroaching bush; of ZANU-PF fat cats and their playboy offspring speeding around Harare in sleek Mercedes, or stuffing themselves in restaurants; of opponents beaten, tortured and killed; of Mugabe and his profligate wife holed up in their heavily guarded estate, oblivious to the misery of their people, while Western aid groups inadvertently prop up a pernicious regime by providing the rudimentary services - food, water, healthcare - the failed state can no longer deliver. "Enough is enough," British Prime Minister Gordon Brown declared as the West worked itself up into one of its periodic lathers last month. But no one, it seems, is prepared to contemplate the one guaranteed means of removing Zimbabwe's President: military intervention by a multinational force. Nothing else has worked. Mugabe has shown not the slightest intention of honouring his commitment to share power with Morgan Tsvangirai and the Movement for Democratic Change. South Africa has singularly failed, despite repeated international exhortations, to exert real pressure on Mugabe to step down. Thabo Mbeki, its former president and the Southern African Development Community's mediator, has been downright complicit in sustaining the regime. There will be no popular uprising against Mugabe - three million of Zimbabwe's best citizens have fled the country and the rest are too weak, cowed and preoccupied with survival. A palace coup is improbable - the leaders of ZANU-PF's bitterly feuding factions appear to recognise that if Mugabe falls, they all do. There have been no repeats of the riots by underpaid soldiers that briefly raised hopes last month. Some advocate a fuel blockade, but that would merely compound the suffering of ordinary people while the regime would undoubtedly find ways to circumvent it. Which leaves military intervention - an idea from which, after Iraq, the world instinctively and understandably recoils. But is it really so unthinkable? You could equally well argue if there were ever a case for regime change, for using military power to better the world, Zimbabwe is it. First, it is eminently feasible. No great force would be required. The Mugabe regime, like a tree hollowed out by termites, is just waiting to be toppled. It is sustained by security forces whose middle and lower ranks are almost as penniless, starving and demoralised as the citizens they are meant to suppress. You see numerous soldiers and policemen hitchhiking on the highways, and in the privacy of a car they readily voice profound disgruntlement. It is inconceivable that they would fight to defend the regime, even if they had the weapons, fuel and transport. Most would melt away at the first sight of a foreign force. Any fighting would probably be over within hours, and the bloodshed would be minimal. Second, there is a popular and legitimate government waiting to take over. Nobody seriously disputes that Mr Tsvangirai and the MDC comfortably won the presidential and parliamentary elections last March despite all ZANU-PF's violence, intimidation and vote-rigging. Third, it is immoral for the world to stand by, wringing its hands, in the face of such manifest evil. The 2005 UN World Summit agreed the international community bore a responsibility to protect populations from genocide and other atrocities when their own governments failed to do so. What is happening in Zimbabwe is not far short of genocide. More than half the population would starve were it not for Western food aid. Life expectancy has plunged to 39 years - the lowest in the world. AIDS, cholera and other diseases sweep away the chronically malnourished. While the regime loots what is left of Zimbabwe's wealth, a third of the population has been driven out, 90 per cent of those that remain are jobless, and the currency is rendered worthless by an inflation rate measured in quintillions of percentage points. Any opposition is ruthlessly crushed. The arguments against military intervention are easy to predict. It would set a precedent. South Africa would object. If Zimbabwe, why not Sudan or North Korea? Intervention would smack of Western imperialism. To which the answers are, in turn: I hope so; tough; because Zimbabwe is doable; and that any intervention force would have to include African troops. Kenya, Botswana and Zambia have all denounced the regime. Even Ethiopia might be tempted by the prospect of capturing its former president, Mengistu Haile Mariam, who lives there as Mugabe's guest despite being convicted in absentia of genocide. Once inconceivable, military intervention is still only a remote possibility. The political will does not exist. Already world attention has been diverted by Gaza, and Mugabe - the "old crocodile" - has survived another crisis. The Times

Only one way to end Mugabe's evil

The leader who betrayed his people: Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe LONG after you leave Zimbabwe, images linger in the mind, harrowi...

1:09 PM

Water probed after hundreds of Kruger crocs die

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiafywp_xgXXaccOFucJgd0d1QDRalv8iOZPEC2Tw_PTZ5heJpVti1wKd_LMOz-YDa6bho208TPPSs1aeSDyLUd2TnksPaLfnL99QR4h0mwVNIOyWdmcOccAYyAYVJ6dgNhFuFEEsAHWQ0/s1600-h/kruger-crocs-water.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5271601044629314850" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiafywp_xgXXaccOFucJgd0d1QDRalv8iOZPEC2Tw_PTZ5heJpVti1wKd_LMOz-YDa6bho208TPPSs1aeSDyLUd2TnksPaLfnL99QR4h0mwVNIOyWdmcOccAYyAYVJ6dgNhFuFEEsAHWQ0/s400/kruger-crocs-water.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 282px" /></a>The perplexing deaths of hundreds of crocodiles in the Kruger National Park may have stumped South Africa's leading scientists, but Danie Pienaar believes it has also created awareness about this predator's vital role in ecosystems. "It's mostly children who get really excited about these big crocodiles because they're magnificent and old like dinosaurs," said Pienaar, the head of scientific services at Kruger Park. "And we should get really excited about them. They're not these horrible beasts lurking around trying to eat you. They play an important role in the system, and if you're happy to lose things like big crocodiles, what else are you willing to sacrifice?" One of the goals of the newly launched Consortium for the Restoration of the Olifants Catchment (Croc), a gathering of about 40 of SA's top researchers, scientists, conservationists and wildlife pathologists, is to raise the profile of crocodiles, said Pienaar. Croc will focus on unravelling the mystery behind the deaths of more than 160 crocodiles - the real figure is believed to be double this - in the Olifants Gorge since May this year as well as saving the Olifants river system, one of SA's hardest-working - and most polluted - systems. "We've now got to put together specialist groups [within Croc] that will be looking at different issues in more detail around water quality, crocodiles and the fish. People who work on the Olifants have been saying for a long time that there's a big problem coming with the Olifants. By the time the crocodiles are dying, things have gone way too far. We want to look at the bigger environmental problem, which we believe is growing in all our rivers, around water quality." Led by SANParks, Croc includes experts from the Water Research Commission, the universities of North West and Pretoria, as well as the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry. It also hopes to draw in expertise from the neighbouring Limpopo National Park in Mozambique. Post-mortem results show the crocodiles died of pansteatitis, or body fat hardening, which leads to starvation. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-Q3gE82M17YfSRnu7lj8BXkH-H6iAVoKfVGe0VHV6y_BeHeIiSxhZygRGgrAMS6JaKUuWyNrb0fbWOYeUj2ArGBvolEU4OGgSmF3oGpAhQ0rCmSgTpaQj_evM8WcIgmsT3kLm-1TkK9A/s1600-h/cholera-zim.gif"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5271686987488273682" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-Q3gE82M17YfSRnu7lj8BXkH-H6iAVoKfVGe0VHV6y_BeHeIiSxhZygRGgrAMS6JaKUuWyNrb0fbWOYeUj2ArGBvolEU4OGgSmF3oGpAhQ0rCmSgTpaQj_evM8WcIgmsT3kLm-1TkK9A/s320/cholera-zim.gif" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 307px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px" /></a>There is also concern over rural communities in SA and Mozambique who source untreated water from the river. "Around Mozambique's Massinger Dam [where the wall was recently raised] people eat the fish and drink water from the dam, but if the [Olifants] river keeps deteriorating, we could start seeing problems in humans as well. We've seen cholera outbreaks in Zimbabwe and now South Africa." Dr Peter Ashton, an aquatic ecologist at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, and a member of Croc, said the Olifants had been "used and abused" for the past 50 years. He believes acidic mine pollution from abandoned and closed coal mines on the escarpment, raw and treated sewage pumped into the river system from surrounding municipalities, as well as contamination from agricultural chemicals and domestic effluent could all be placing the Olifants system under extreme stress. "All these could be adding up. You start to see sensitive organisms disappearing and the character of the river changing. We're putting all our heads together now to see how this catchment is being worked, where the problems are and how these are impacting the river. The river is functioning as a kidney in the landscape." Croc represents the largest grouping of aquatic specialists. "We can't just leave it up to the authorities," he said, because staff are lacking. Ashton hopes to see the same action on other hard-working rivers in SA. "They are all heavily utilised. We need to look carefully at how they supply water, and transport and dispose of treated effluents."

Water probed after hundreds of Kruger crocs die

The perplexing deaths of hundreds of crocodiles in the Kruger National Park may have stumped South Africa's leading scientists, but Dani...

1:25 PM

Cholera Epidemic Crosses the Border into South Africa

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrsYDBaso5kGOGlwAVhFYzL0EhF8AEXEmrYHXCHBMw5uwjuez6viQw4OPsKiaRhPoM4VRMoAZ6bR2tR6VzS4ujx06vdb8O4GrJdxuTammqJbsQRvipswpomrXkJHZ3Aich9WHdL0lNO-I/s1600-h/cholera-outbreak.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5271679860465222898" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrsYDBaso5kGOGlwAVhFYzL0EhF8AEXEmrYHXCHBMw5uwjuez6viQw4OPsKiaRhPoM4VRMoAZ6bR2tR6VzS4ujx06vdb8O4GrJdxuTammqJbsQRvipswpomrXkJHZ3Aich9WHdL0lNO-I/s320/cholera-outbreak.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 214px" /></a><a href="http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?rid=19684756&cat=371b1b8643d479c1" target="_blank">Cholera Crosses the Border Too</a> Musina - Precarious living conditions and the collapse of infrastructure in Zimbabwe have probably led to the serious outbreak of what is believed to be cholera in the Musina area in Limpopo. A businessman from Yeoville, Johannesburg, had possibly contracted the infection after he stopped at Musina to buy something to eat on his return from a business trip to Bulawayo. He was admitted to the Charlotte Maxeke Hospital where tests were being done to determine whether he had cholera, said Phumele Kaunda of the Gauteng health authority. Dr Lucille Blumberg of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases said on Tuesday that laboratory tests still had to confirm whether the infections in South Africa were indeed cholera. On Tuesday she said provisional information indicated that the disease had its origins in Zimbabwe. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTCGU8cnVCDzxG8kYIZb07KMWpHgrvS9rx-1g6joCxKBkpPaBR-coRd_GRaiSN_pH3xhkonkFU0QFurVsZrqMzgC44xeLcclt4Yfo5LfmuJwolxgu4tcvFOMruMaFQd-fEn28B5lkcWSI/s1600-h/water-refugeecamp1.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5271680224855037538" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTCGU8cnVCDzxG8kYIZb07KMWpHgrvS9rx-1g6joCxKBkpPaBR-coRd_GRaiSN_pH3xhkonkFU0QFurVsZrqMzgC44xeLcclt4Yfo5LfmuJwolxgu4tcvFOMruMaFQd-fEn28B5lkcWSI/s400/water-refugeecamp1.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px" /></a>"We regard it as an extremely serious outbreak. We are very worried about conditions across the border. Zimbabwe is a humanitarian disaster." Up to 1.4 million people are at risk of the infection if it continues to spread unchecked across Zimbabwe, AFP reported Doctors Without Borders as saying on Tuesday, as official media reported 73 people have died of the disease. The state-run Herald newspaper said that cholera had killed 37 people in Harare, while another 36 died and 431 were hospitalised in Beitbridge, on the border with South Africa. Blumberg said cholera usually breaks out when natural water sources like streams are contaminated with human faeces. It is not clear whether the cholera in Harare is related to the outbreak on the border. Minister of Health Barbara Hogan had instructed the department to support Limpopo and had spoken to a representative of the World Health Organisation (WHO), said Fidel Hadebe, departmental spokesperson. Hadebe said there was no indication that local water sources had been contaminated. Related links:- <a class="elevenLink" href="http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2428110,00.html" onclick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview('/outbound/relatedlink');" title="'Let them lie somewhere'">'Let them lie somewhere'</a> <a class="elevenLink" href="http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2388714,00.html" onclick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview('/outbound/relatedlink');" title="100s seeking asylum in Limpopo">100s seeking asylum in Limpopo</a>

Cholera Epidemic Crosses the Border into South Africa

Cholera Crosses the Border Too Musina - Precarious living conditions and the collapse of infrastructure in Zimbabwe have probably led to th...

10:59 AM

South Africa P.I.G.