 According to Colwell, before funds were diverted from the plants to other uses, there were only sixty-five cases and four deaths from cholera in Zimbabwe.According to an editorial by Daniel J Ncayiyana in the "South African Medical Journal", President Mugabe blamed the U.S. and the U.K. for the cholera outbreak, saying that they sent the disease so that they have a reason to credibly remove him from the presidency.One Zimbabwean citizen was shown with a sign that blamed UK Prime Minister Gordan Brown for the disease; the sign expressed the horrors of "Brown’s cholera".