Cholera outbreak in Zambia is reflective of a failed capitalist system – Dr. Musumali
By Staff Reporter
The outbreak of cholera in Zambia is reflective of a failed periphery capitalist system, opposition Socialist Party interim General Secretary Dr Cosmas Musumali has said.
In a statement this afternoon, Dr Musumali said under the capitalist system, the majority of the urban population were destined to lives in over-crowded compounds with little or no adequate water and sanitation facilities.
“Other than the rhetoric of the corrupt and inept petty bourgeois ruling elite, the millions of people living in Kanyama, Misisi, Jack Compound, Chibolya and similar places should not expect a lasting solution to the deaths and misery caused by cholera and other poverty-related diseases,” he said.
He said Lusaka found itself in a near-lockdown due to the outbreak of cholera again and a rise was expected in morbidity and mortality over the coming weeks with the onset of heavy rains and sustained high temperatures.
Dr Musumali said the social and economic impact was huge as it was affecting thousands of people trying to sustain livelihoods in the filthy, unhygienic markets and streets.
“The opening of schools has been delayed. Huge numbers of our defence personnel have been mobilised in a clean up exercise. The reputation of the country as a destiny for tourism is at stake!,” Dr Musumuli exclaimed.
He said this was all a reminiscent of a failed socio-economic and political system, which was periphery capitalism where greed, individualism, corruption, conspicuous consumption by the elite and marginalisation of the masses is tolerated, accepted and internalised.
Dr Musumali said it was a capitalist system was short term and reactive in dealing with the public health interests of the masses.
“Ghettoes of wealth for a few stand side-by-side with the squalor and poverty of the majority. Appropriate sanitation is deemed a privilege of a few. Where land use and city planning is systematically cast aside; boreholes and improvised sewer facilities are within close proximity of each other; faecal matters and drinking water combine in a highly dangerous way,” he said.
Dr Musumali said the elite of the country forgot that it depended on the labour of the poor from the epicentres of the diseases to prepare food in the restaurants and hotels.
He said it was the poor that worked in the posh homes and take care of the off-springs of the rich.
“The Vibrio cholerae will therefore not remain in the slums of cities, it will visit the spaces reserved for the elite. When this happens, panic occurs. The vulnerabilities and short-sightedness of the system becomes apparent. A lot will be done today to stop this outbreak. And it will be stopped for now. However, it doesn’t require complicated modelling to predict that the next outbreak will take place before end of year. The fact is that we are tackling the tail-end of the disease,” he said
Dr Musumali said Chorela could only be contained in Kanyama and the entire city when each Zambian had access to clean water and appropriate sanitation.
However, he said this was not possible under the current Zambian capitalist order as lack of distributional justice and equity is inherent in the system.
He said the whole system had failed Zambians and cholera was merely exposing this failure as people were becoming uncertain and angry with a potential of turning into political discontent.
“As trading markets are closed and people’s liberties are constrained in tackling the epidemic, the whole political establishment is called into question. The Zambian ruling class knows this very well. They are not only sending soldiers armed with gloves, brooms and shovels. A good proportion is armed for combat. Just to ensure that the masses do not seize the opportunity to protest,” Dr Musumali said.
He said as much as the Socialist Party welcomed the multi-sectoral efforts being undertaken to combat cholera, it should be made clear that those who have died are due to political neglect of the masses by the system.
“More innocent lives will be lost for years to come as long as capitalism remains the socio-political and economic system in our homeland. Our struggle for Justice, Equity and Peace (JEP) through socialism is the only answer. Without the socialist values of Equity, Honesty, Humility and Solidarity, the lives of our people will continue to be sacrificed for decades to come,” he said.
Cholera is transmitted by drinking water or eating food that is contaminated with the toxigenic strains of the bacterium Vibrio cholerae (serogroups O1 or O139). Approximately 5–10% of persons suffer from severe cholera and if untreated, 50% of severe cases are fatal. The infection rate can spread by a factor of 10 each 10 days, i.e. 2,000 infected people can quickly result in 20,000 total infections within 10 days.
Its short incubation period makes it lethal. For centuries it has remained a horrific global disease that exposes the class nature and inequities in society. Since the fifth century BC, humanity has studied the epidemiology of the disease.
