OFFICIALS scrambled to clear the Harare Magistrates’ Courts Friday following a typhoid and cholera scare.
Several people started vomiting while others complained of severe stomach pain, triggering scenes of panic at the courts.
Police details ordered everyone out of the building just after 11AM saying the courts had been shut down due to a suspected cholera and typhoid outbreak.
A burly officer literally shooed away those who tried to gain entry into the building shouting: “Maita cholera muno; dzokerai kwamabva mozouya neMonday (There’s cholera in the building, go home and come back on Monday)."
Court officials did not comment on the development although other employees could also be seen making a bee-line for the exits.
Prisoners were quickly shunted back onto their vehicles and driven away while other people who had court appearances scheduled for the day complained about the inconvenience.
"This is unfair I had asked for some time off at work now it has all been a waste,” said one young man.
Sources at the court said the building, located along Harare’s Rotten Row Road, had been without running water supplies over the past three days and there was a pungent stink emanating from the toilets.
Harare has been battling a typhoid outbreak blamed on collapsed water and sanitation facilities with more than 1,500 people so far treated for the disease.
Health Services Director, Dr Prosper Chonzi, recently warned that the city faced a cholera outbreak as the water crisis continues to deteriorate.
Health and Child Welfare Minister Henry Madzorera said the government must immediately make available funds to refurbish long neglected water, sanitation and sewerage infrastructure.
Four years ago over 4,000 people died of cholera in an outbreak which affected nearly 100,000 people across the country.