Southern Africa launches urgent aid for Zimbabwe

ZIMBABWE’s neighbours will launch an urgent humanitarian campaign in the hope of saving the country from economic collapse and a cholera epidemic, South African president Kgalema Motlanthe said yesterday.

Almost 1,000 people have died in the cholera outbreak, piling more agony on Zimbabweans already suffering runaway hyperinflation and shortages of food and fuel. The cholera has intensified western calls for President Robert Mugabe, who has ruled since independence from Britain in 1980, to step down.

Regional mediation has failed to persuade the ruling ZANU-PF and opposition to implement a September power-sharing agreement, seen as the best chance of easing an economic crisis that has driven millions of Zimbabweans to neighbouring countries.