Opposition leader: Zimbabwe is in shambles

HARARE, Zimbabwe, Nov. 26 (UPI) -- Zimbabwe could see deaths from starvation and a cholera outbreak surge with the rainy season on its way, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said Wednesday.

CNN reported Tsvangirai said cholera deaths could soon top 50 a day. He said the government seems intent on covering up the outbreak.

"No government would want its people to suffer. Cholera is not peculiar to Zimbabwe," he said. "We hear it is now in South Africa, too, but we cannot relax because of that. We have to fight it as Zimbabweans."

Tsvangirai's comments that Zimbabwe is in shambles is bolstered by observations by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who returned from a five-day trip to neighboring South Africa this week and declared Zimbabwe "a basket case."

CNN reported Tsvangirai also expressed frustration with attempts to form a unity government between his Movement for Democratic Change and the ruling Zanu-PF party.

The Zimbabwean government pushed back against Tsvangirai's allegations that President Robert Mugabe and his Zanu-PF party were responsible for the country's woes.

"The government is very committed to ensure that the humanitarian crisis is addressed. It would be wrong for the MDC to blame it on the government," Foreign Affairs Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi said.