By Own Correspondent| Newly appointed Health and Child Care minister Dr Obadiah Moyo has attributed the cholera outbreak to Harare City Council’s complacency to attend to sewer bursts in Glen View for the past two months, resulting in the contamination of boreholes.

Government declared the cholera outbreak in Harare a state of emergency following the death of 20 people.

According to the health ministry, over 2 300 suspected cases had been recorded in Harare alone since the disease outbreak last week.

Said Dr Moyo:

“Someone slept on duty and this is one of the problems we must tackle as Zimbabwe. People must work. This whole problem is a result of blocked sewers and these were reported, but were never repaired for at least two months. Now we have the whole of Glen View and Budiriro being affected.

Moyo said the newly sworn in Harare Mayor Herbert Gomba had agreed to immediately clear all sewer blockages.

However, Mayor Gomba said Government must also play its part in fighting cholera.

Said Gomba:

“We are working on responsibilities that fall within our mandate but there are also other responsibilities that lie outside our mandate, which Government should also chip in to assist.

For instance, for us to collect garbage, we need refuse trucks but we are failing to get foreign currency from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to get our refuse trucks, which have been in South Africa for the past 10 months.”