A Zimbabwean fetches water from an unprotected well in Harare
© AFP/File Desmond Kwande

HARARE (AFP) - While the army played down violence by a "small number of indisciplined soldiers" directed against dealers in desperately-short foreign currency, the leader of the opposition said the country was completely collapsing.

With the capital Harare without water for a second day running, staff at the city's main hospital stayed away from work. Employees also failed to show at hospitals in two other major cities, Bulawayo and Mutare.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said the cholera outbreak could rise rapidly unless people have quick access to treatment.

In its latest toll, the Geneva-based WHO said that 483 people were now known to have died from the water-borne disease.

Map locating Zimbabwe
© AFP Graphic

The most affected region was Budirio, a province of the capital, where some 5,829 suspected cases have been recorded, said Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman of the UN humanitarian affairs bureau.

The state mouthpiece Herald newspaper meanwhile reported that 390 people had died and that water had been cut off in almost all the capital's suburbs, industrial areas and central business district.

The shut down led residents to criss-cross the city in search of water, even resorting to lifting manholes to access pipes, and forced companies in the industrial area to run a skeleton staff or exempt workers from duty.

Informal traders were cashing in on the crisis, selling a 25-litre plastic container of water for 25 dollars (19.8 euros), with water authorities citing a lack of chemicals as the reason for the shut down, the newspaper said.

Cholera patients wait for treatment at the Budiriro Polyclinic in Harare
© AFP Desmond Kwande

Anger towards black marketeers, long accused of profiting from the country's misery, has been steadily growing with the cholera crisis.

The looting on Monday in Harare broke out during an operation by soldiers to arrest illegal forex dealers, degenerating into a looting binge in several shops, which was finally halted with the intervention of the police.

"Whatever is happening is not the official position of the army," army spokesman Colonel Simon Tsatsi told AFP.

The WHO has warned that there are 11,735 suspected cases of cholera in Zimbabwe
© AFP Desmond Kwande

"We don't subscribe to that. It's probably just a few small number of indisciplined soldiers who are doing this."

An AFP journalist said the scene was calm Tuesday morning, but with fewer traders on the streets than normal.

Black market foreign currency peddling has become rampant in Zimbabwe as the country battles food and chronic currency shortages with inflation at a staggering 231 million percent.

Currency restrictions have led to long queues outside banks, with some depositors sleeping on the streets just to be at the front.

Zimbabweans walk past a shop which was vandalised and looted by solders
© AFP Desmond Kwande

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, speaking in Dakar on Monday night, warned that the situation in Zimbabwe had reached disastrous proportions.

"The country is reaching a catastrophic level, in terms of food, health delivery, education. Everything seems to be collapsing around us," he told reporters.

The cholera epidemic has added to pressure on the 84-year-old Mugabe and the Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to implement an agreement in September to share power after disputed elections earlier in the year.

The deal was hailed as a step toward hauling Zimbabwe out of political turmoil and economic ruin, but instead the nation has sunk deeper into crisis.

©AFP