The province of Limpopo most heavily affected by the cholera epidemic carried across the border by Zimbabwean refugees has been declared a disaster area, according to the provincial spokesperson.
The move will free up resources to help the health services straining to cope with at least 680 reported cases.
The move came hours before the leader of Zimbabwe¹s Zanu-PF party, Robert Mugabe, reportedly said that there was no cholera in Zimbabwe.
Agence France-Presse reported that, in a broadcast speech, Mugabe said: ”I am happy to say our doctors have been assisted by others and WHO [the World Health Organisation] — so that now there is no cholera.”
The WHO said that 775 people have died of cholera in Zimbabwe, and there are about 16 000 reported cases of the disease.
The WHO warned that the disease could affect up to 60 000 people in the next few weeks. A Mozambican newspaper, NotÃÂcias, reported that about 20 people were being treated for cholera in that country and at least four people had died of the disease. The economic crisis in Zimbabwe means that even cholera victims who receive medical attention through private doctors are likely to be sent to South Africa because no drugs are available in Zimbabwe.
For Sheneterai Gotore the diarrhoea, vomiting and severe dehydration she has endured because of cholera are less than the emotional and spiritual torment she was going through in Zimbabwe.
”It is a blessing to be sick here. Now I am receiving medical treatment I wouldn’t even have dreamed of getting in Zimbabwe,” she said. On Wednesday there were 46 cholera admissions in Limpopo province, 10 of them at Madimbo clinic, 40km from Musina. ”We assess the conditions of the patients and if they are severe they are transferred to Musina where they will get full medical attention and treatment,” said Khuphelani Sigidi, the area district communications officer for the health and social development department.
Gotore did not come to South Africa to seek medical help. She left her children and parents in Zimbabwe to seek work. After getting under the border fence she broke her knee when running from soldiers on the look-out for refugees. Before she could be deported back Gotore was treated for her broken knee. ”I was taken to the clinic in the Madimbo village and that is where I think I got cholera.” She is being treated now in Musina hospital.
On Wednesday Musina hospital admitted eight children with cholera under the age of five. Mothers stay in a marquee at the hospital while they wait for their children to recover. Adult patients sit under trees with their rehydrating intravenous drips. ”I am so much better now. When I came here I couldn¹t even speak,” said Nyambeni Munzhelele from Madimbo village. She said that she was not sure where she got cholera from because she uses tap water. ”I live with three of my grown-up kids, I wouldn’t say that one of my children went to play in a dirty river,” she said.
Showgrounds provide temporary shelter
The showgrounds in Musina, Limpopo province, are a no-man’s-land, yet they are filled with people. Several hundred asylum-seekers sit in the sun-baked dirt fields. The refugees, most of whom come from Zimbabwe, said they cannot walk more than 100m from the grounds without risking arrest and deportation. They are permitted to stay at the grounds without papers indefinitely. Indeed, some refugees claimed that home affairs officials are deliberately prolonging the asylum application process as a deterrent.
Officials from the Department of Home Affairs did not respond to the Mail & Guardian‘s requests for comment on claims made by asylum-seekers.
Musina, a border town of 20 000 people, is straining to cope with the immigrants from Zimbabwe where hunger and cholera now mushroom like inflation. Shops and streets are clogged with people and some residents suggest that desperation among refugees has led to an increase in crime.
International NGOs and local churches are supplying healthcare and food at the showgrounds, where refugees wait weeks to be seen by a mobile unit from the department of home affairs. Clean water is available at several taps at the site and the Musina town council has donated a dozen portable toilets.
Despite these efforts some refugees said they have not eaten in three to four days, while others complained of intestinal illnesses, heat exhaustion and hunger-induced dizziness. Albert Masango, a boiler operator from Harare, said he had been in the camp for two weeks waiting for his asylum application to be considered. He hoped to find work and send remittances to his struggling family. ”I have two kids in Harare, and now here I am sleeping on the ground,” he said. Several refugees estimated that about a quarter of those at the camp grounds have received asylum papers but have no money to leave the camp.
Some asylum-seekers said they had travelled from Johannesburg to renew their permits in Musina, which was believed to process them faster. Most of the refugees, however, had paid guides about R200 to be led through electric fencing and armed soldiers from both countries to get to the showgrounds. They said that criminals often victimised immigrants, extracting money for bogus travel services, work promises, stealing from them down to their pants and shirts and raping women. The asylum-seekers said that they risked these dangers because a passport or emergency travel document in Zimbabwe would cost about R2 000 — or R300 in bribes — that have to be paid in foreign currency. The overcrowding and poor conditions at the showgrounds understandably cause tension. News and rumour travel fast. On Wednesday a home affairs security guard was seen chasing refugees away from a food donation area, sjambok in hand, and some refugees claimed a guard had beaten a refugee the previous day. There are reports of prostitution and robbery. According to one asylum-seeker, a suspected thief was stoned to death on Wednesday by fellow camp residents.