Kevin Woghiren

Zimbabwe: Cholera Country video from Guardian.co.uk

Where do I begin? Hyperinflation, Political incompetence, or the recent Cholera epidemic?

A country that once prided itself as being one of Africa’s fastest developing countries after gaining its independence from the United Kingdom in 1980 is now reduced to shambles. Poor macro-management of the economy by President Mugabe’s ZANU-PF government has led to a 231,000,000% inflation rate (Zimbabwe’s dollar was once worth more than the U.S. dollar and up to par with the British pound), a 90% unemployment rate, a food and water crisis, and widespread cholera.

Despite all of this, there is still hope. Earlier this month, ZANU-PF rival, Morgan Tsvangirai, was sworn in as the country’s Prime Minister in a power-sharing deal that was brokered by South African President Thabo Mbeki. Tsvangirai’s duties will include spearheading the efforts of the ministries of health, finance, and education. With political stability within reach in Zimbabwe because of this, now is the time for the international community to step up and provide much needed humanitarian and fiscal aid in order for the country to overcome its current plight and rebuild its shameful infrastructure. The ideal situation would be for the ZANU-PF party to step down from the government; but, given President Mugabe’s narcissistic tendencies, this will never happen and we can only wait for the future ramifications of the power-sharing deal between the two political rivals.

Not much is known about the true status quo of Zimbabwe due to President Mugabe’s quasi-censorship of the country’s media outlets and foreign journalists. Luckily, Guardian was able to get a video journal about Zimbabwe’s cholera outbreak and socio-economic state in the above link, out of the country. How do we end this crisis?