VZCZCXRO1984
OO RUEHBZ RUEHDU RUEHJO RUEHMR RUEHRN
DE RUEHSB #1101/01 3441456
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 091456Z DEC 08
FM AMEMBASSY HARARE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 3805
INFO RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AF DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY COLLECTIVE
RUEHAR/AMEMBASSY ACCRA 2487
RUEHDS/AMEMBASSY ADDIS ABABA 2611
RUEHRL/AMEMBASSY BERLIN 1104
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 1880
RUEHDK/AMEMBASSY DAKAR 2235
RUEHKM/AMEMBASSY KAMPALA 2660
RUEHNR/AMEMBASSY NAIROBI 5088
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RUZEJAA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK
RHMFISS/EUCOM POLAD VAIHINGEN GE
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 1752
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HARARE 001101 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
AF/S FOR B. WALCH 
DRL FOR N. WILETT 
ADDIS ABABA FOR USAU 
ADDIS ABABA FOR ACSS 
STATE PASS TO USAID FOR E. LOKEN AND L. DOBBINS 
STATE PASS TO NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR B. PITTMAN 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL ASEC PHUM ZI
SUBJECT: DIRTY POLITICS AT WORK IN TOWN THAT VOTED MDC 
 
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SUMMARY 
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¶1.  (SBU) The mayor of Ruwa, Pinias Mushayavanhu, and members 
of his town council met with us on December 5 to discuss 
living conditions in Ruwa, a town of 100,000 people located 
about 12 miles east of Harare.  The mayor and his staff are 
all members of the opposition MDC and displaced the incumbent 
ZANU-PF administration in the March 2008 elections.  Since 
that election, the town has been deprived of virtually all 
federal government support.  This has contributed to the 
rapid deterioration of water delivery, education, and health 
services in Ruwa.  The extent of the degradation of these 
basic needs was made clear during site visits at the town's 
water facilities, a primary school, the local clinic, and the 
maintenance workshop.  Ruwa is a snapshot of what is 
occurring throughout Zimbabwe.  END SUMMARY. 
 
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100,000 People Using a Single Borehole 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶2.  (SBU) Ruwa's citizens are now relying on a single 
borehole located on the eastern side of the town.  As we 
arrived there was a line of several dozen locals waiting to 
fill containers to bring back to their homes.  The town 
engineer explained that they have not received Harare 
municipal water for seven months, and the only other borehole 
had broken down.  This meant that anyone living on the 
western side of town would have to carry jugs of water for 
several miles.  The engineer told us that if the borehole 
broke down or dried up, the council would not be able to 
afford repairs or the costs to drill a new borehole.  After 
pondering that possibility, the engineer said, "I don't know 
what we would do." 
 
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Raw Sewage Shuts Down Primary School 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶3.  (SBU) We also visited one of Ruwa's two primary schools. 
The school consists of a handful of single story buildings 
that appeared to be in reasonably good shape.  However, the 
school had been closed because an underground sewage pipe 
burst, leading to a large pool of standing waste.  A stream 
of sewage was also steadily flowing downhill across the lawn 
that separated the buildings.  The engineer explained that 
this was the same water we had seen earlier being collected 
from the borehole, after it had been used to flush toilets. 
Once the pipe burst, school officials and parents closed the 
school out of concern children would be exposed to cholera. 
 
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The Clinic Stands Empty 
----------------------- 
 
¶4.  (SBU) A visit of the Ruwa town clinic revealed a 
well-built building consisting of a dozen rooms designed to 
provide medical services including basic surgical operations, 
maternity care, and disease treatment and prevention.  The 
clinic was a council-funded project begun about ten years 
ago, but while the construction had been completed, it was 
essentially providing no medical services to the population. 
There was only a single nurse working at the clinic, as the 
second nurse had quit earlier in the year.  The nurse 
explained that there were no patients being treated because 
they had no drugs to offer and no doctors on staff.  She 
showed us the pharmacy which only had a few boxes of medical 
supplies such as gauze and tape.  The refrigerator held some 
 
HARARE 00001101  002 OF 002 
 
 
childhood inoculations, but they were ruined because they had 
not been kept cool due to electricity outages.  The maternity 
ward did not even have a tape measure to measure newborn 
infants.  Poloff asked where Ruwa's cholera victims were 
getting treatment, and the nurse replied that they were dying 
in their homes.  She told us that on the day we visited a 
two-year old had died of cholera. 
 
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Garbage Piles Up 
---------------- 
 
¶5.  (SBU) The Ruwa town maintenance yard houses the 
facilities that maintain the town's vehicles, including the 
only garbage truck.  The truck was no longer in operation 
because the hydraulic pump that raises and lowers the garbage 
bin and compressor had broken.  The engineer received an 
estimate of US$5,000 to repair it, but the council did not 
have the funds.  Consequently, there is no garbage pick-up in 
Ruwa, and waste is being dumped illegally or being burned. 
Ironically, council members shared that the only garbage 
trucks that drive Ruwa's streets are those city trucks that 
are directed to dump garbage at the houses of MDC officials. 
 
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COMMENT 
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¶6.  (SBU) Ruwa is not unique in today's Zimbabwe, though it 
bears a double burden for having voted for the opposition. 
The town still has a workable infrastructure that has broken 
down because of lack of investment.  While unpaid, the 
officials we met with were wholly dedicated.  Their greatest 
frustration was that they couldn't deliver to Ruwa's citizens 
that which they had been voted in to office to accomplish. 
END COMMENT. 
 
DHANANI