Mugabe's regime claims that the cholera outbreak does not exist in Zimbabwe any more. They say the entire story about the cholera epidemic has been fabricated in the West to mobilize the support for the invasion of this Southern African country.

A cholera epidemic broke out in Zimbabwe a few weeks ago, claiming so far over 700 lives, with more than 16,000 cases reported. The aid agencies estimate that over 60,000 people could be affected by the disease in the coming weeks.

In the 1990s, Zimbabwe's GDP was second highest in sub-Saharan Africa. The country was the breadbasket of the continent. Due to economic mismanagement by Mugabe's regime, the country is in complete disarray today. In July 2008, Zimbabwe's annual inflation rate was over 231 million percent. The majority of the population is unemployed and starving, while the health system is unable to fight an easily curable disease such as cholera.

Cholera spreads through poor sanitation and contaminated water and food, causing diarrhea, vomiting, and dehydration which can be deadly. The disease can easily and inexpensively be dealt with, but not in Zimbabwe. Due to the economic collapse and the government's indifference toward its citizens, Zimbabwe lacks clean water and raw sewage runs down the streets. In order to survive, people drink the contaminated water thus contracting the disease.

Closed hospitals

With many hospitals closed due to the lack of staff, equipment, water, electricity, and drugs, people are often left to themselves to simply die. The lucky ones who live near the borders with South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique, and Zambia are finding refuge in those countries and their health centers.

And while South Africa has declared a cholera disaster in the area that borders Zimbabwe, Mugabe claims that the cholera epidemic in his country is over.

Zimbabwe's Information Minister, Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, said after Mugabe's televised address that George Bush and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown "can stop calling for the invasion of Zimbabwe now that we have defeated cholera. The claims they’ve made that we cannot control or govern our country have been laid to rest. We don't need to hear more from their dirty mouths. We don't need to hear more about military intervention from their leashed poodles in Kenya, either."

In another interview that displayed the paranoia and insanity of the authoritarian regime, Mugabe’s Information Minister said that the initial cholera outbreak was sparked by a “biological attack” by the British government and not by the lack of clean water in Zimbabwe.

Several African and Western leaders have said in the recent days that Mugabe should step down from power. Kenya's Prime Minister, Raila Odinga, went further, saying that African countries need to force Mugabe from power in order to save Zimbabwe and its citizens.

Commenting on Mugabe's "arrest" of cholera, the Movement for Democratic Change, the main opposition party in Zimbabwe, said that Mugabe has clearly displayed yet another moment of "madness" when he denied the existence of a cholera epidemic in the country.

People in Zimbabwe have nothing to lose. They can wait and die from starvation or cholera or finally rise up and revolt until they defeat the ruthless tyranny of Mugabe who is finally being compared to Adolf Hitler by some prominent Africans.