Solving the cholera crisis is not just a Zimbabwean responsibility, said the Limpopo health department on Monday.

Limpopo health spokesperson Phuti Seloba said this was a resolution reached at a meeting between Zimbabwean and South African health officials in Harare on Sunday.

"The most serious thing was... acknowledging the problem is neither South African nor Zimbabwean."

Seloba said South African health officials, instead of treating and releasing people back into situations where they could contract cholera, needed to resolve the actual problem.

"We are working together with our counterparts to come up with a permanent solution."

He said South African and Zimbabwean health officials were discussing their immediate and urgent needs and what resources were available, especially when it came to basic health and hygiene systems.

"Today [Monday] we are doing assessment. Also looking at our strengths and limitations and capacity to deliver," said Seloba.

"Before close of business today [Monday], we will have a clear picture of where we are going".

Seloba said there were 27 people in hospital in Musina with cholera.

There had been 158 reported cases of cholera in the border town since last Saturday and three fatalities.

This Saturday, a Zimbabwean truck driver died of cholera in Durban.

Cholera has claimed the lives of nearly 300 people in Zimbabwe.

Over 6000 cases of the disease have been reported in the country since the start of August — according to World Health Organisation figures released last week.

Sapa