By Isaac Zulu
Socialist Party secretary general Cosmas Musumali has described the cholera outbreak in the country as a national crisis.
In a statement, Dr Musumali urged community leaders to take a leading role in sensitising citizens on cholera prevention measures in the absence of an effective Government response to control the epidemic.
Dr Musumali said the prevailing disease burden, a combination of cholera and COVID-19, had degenerated into a national crisis, which required the participation of all citizens.
“This is a national crisis that we are facing and everyone is called upon to play their part. And this is where the leadership of the government would have been needed. But in the absence of a Government that cares, in the absence of a government that can bring and harness our resources to deal with this pandemic, the issue is left back to the leaders in the communities, please don’t put your hopes in the government, Dr Musumali stated. “We are still trying to push the government but stand up and demand that certain action be taken because this is about your life, this is about your children and this is about the future of our communities.”
He also called on the Ministry of Health to adopt a multisectoral approach in dealing with the cholera epidemic, further urging the Head of State to wake up from slumber and start providing solutions to the challenges facing the Zambian people.
“Please wake up, this country is on fire, this is not the time for empty political slogans. The President of this country (Hakainde Hichilema) also wake up from your slumber, your people are dying, you were voted to provide solutions for this country, you were elected into office to work with all the stakeholders. And it is time you owned up to it. This is the only time that you can redeem yourself because this country has never seen this before,” Dr Musumali said.
He said municipalities, including traditional leaders should be mobilised to actively participate in cholera prevention interventions to help alleviate the outbreak.
Dr Musumali reiterated party president, Fred Mmembe’s call to citizens to practice handwashing and other cholera prevention protocols to bring the epidemic under control.
“The country finds itself in a very dire situation, it is a situation that we have not experienced over a long period of time. You have a combination of diseases, on the one hand, you have cholera that is devastating lives, we have hundreds and thousands of people that we are losing on a daily basis. And on the other hand, you have COVID-19 that is reemerging, and the combination of COVID and this diarrhoeal disease called cholera is proving very difficult for our masses to cope with,” he stated. “So, we have lost people, families are in distress and I think the biggest appeal as the Socialist Party that we will make is for our people to be on guard. The public places, eating in public places, which of course is part of the business that we do, I think we have to be a little bit more cautious,” Dr Musumali said.
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He said it was unfortunate that Government had adopted a cavalier attitude and was trivialising the cholera epidemic, which is confronting Zambians.
“Let us sensitise our children, let’s sensitise our parents and sensitise our communities that these diseases are real and that we must deal with them,” said Dr Musumali.
