MPs attack WHO claim 40% Zimbabweans mad

South African newspapers had a field day on Friday after picking up the story from an online Zimbabwean newspaper based in that country.

Dickson Chibanda, described as a World Health Organisation consultant, was quoted as saying: “In Zimbabwe latest data on common mental disorders indicated prevalence close to 40 percent. Operation Murambatsvina caused a lot of mental disorders to those who were forced out of their homes.”

Chibanda said a survey of mental disorders in Harare's low-income suburbs in 2006 showed a prevalence of 36%. The claim that about one in two Zimbabweans is crazy sparked an angry backlash from Zimbabwean MPs.

“This wacky claim is not only a typical example of the common and always nauseating feature of exaggerated commentary on the situation in Zimbabwe from certain desperate quarters with malicious interests, but it also scales a new ludicrous height in that regard,” blasted Professor Jonathan Moyo, the independent MP for Tsholotsho.

He added: “What is clear and can therefore be readily confirmed is that the astonishing claim is pure madness. If, as it appears, the authors of the nonsensical claim and those peddling it are mad Zimbabweans, they should not think that other Zimbabweans in the country are mad like them.

“Otherwise you don't need a rocket scientist to realise that the intended subtext of the bizarre claim is that there will be no reform led by Zimbabweans ostensibly because nearly half of them have left the country and 40% of those remaining have gone mad while their country is steadily becoming a total mental asylum.

“Surely this kind of rubbish must stop because it is incapable of yielding any good. It is most regrettable that there are gullible Zimbabwean professionals who have become merchants of rubbish when they should know and do better.”

Nelson Chamisa, the MP for Kuwadzana and spokesman for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) dismissed the claims as an exaggeration.

“While it is true we experienced negative consequences from Operation Murambatsvina and other crazy government projects, it is an exaggeration that we have gone mad as a nation,” Chamisa told New Zimbabwe.com.

He added: “Maybe madness is being redefined. One would think that most of the craziness would be among Zanu PF officials who have made us all victims of their madness.”

Operation Murambatsvina, cited as one of the drivers of the mental disorders, was a widely condemned government blitz on unplanned housing in the country's urban centers.

The United Nations said close to 700 000 people were left homeless in the operation which the government said was aimed at curbing lawlessness and criminal activity.

However, a Ghanaian journalist, Baffour Ankomah, who has unprecedented access to Zimbabwe government officials including President Robert Mugabe, later wrote that he had been told the operation was aimed at removing conditions that could trigger street uprisings against the government.

Zimbabwe is going through its worst economic crisis in history. Official inflation is 7600%, and unemployment is thought to be around 80%, although government estimates are much lower.

Article courtesy of http://newzimbabwe.com