As President Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe continues to collapse, with a cholera outbreak that could affect up to 60,000 people, a ravaged economy, food shortages and growing civil unrest, world leaders and the media are declaring that it’s time for Mugabe’s reign to come to an end — either by choice, coercion or by force.

We take a look at what the world is saying inside and outside of Africa.

Gono/Mugabe and the change agenda. We must all accept some responsibility in creating a situation where the Emperor has gotten out of touch with reality and yet no one can tell him that he is n-ked and the more he continues to make noises while we surrender to laugh in disbelief we are in a sense also culpable for creating the mess. We should and must not expect Mugabe to change if we do nothing about it. The future of Zimbabwe is just too important for us to allow the buffoonery of Zimbabwe’s current political actors to take root. — Mutumwa Mawere, Zimbabwe Metro

Endgame in Zimbabwe. In a land with, effectively, no currency, where four out of five people don’t have work, where half the population is hungry, where there is no legitimate government, where sickness stalks the land unchecked, where the capital is frequently without water and electricity, where an average pay packet can’t buy a loaf of bread, where you can be beaten or worse for having the wrong politics and where the right to property has become ephemera… what exactly would constitute “collapse”? — Lester Venter, Politicsweb

South Africa must spearhead sanctions against Zimbabwe. Forget about negotiations — they will solve nothing. The time has come for radical measures by the region, spearheaded by South Africa. The bottom line must be the imposition of “smart” sanctions against the ruling clique, of the kind already applied by the EU and the US, to sever their lifeline to South Africa. — Mail & Guardian

We are as low as Mugabe.  It is a sad day when the country of Nelson Mandela stands side-by-side with a dictator like Mugabe. It is sadder still that we stand quiet when we know the meaning of right and wrong, yet come out consistently on the side of what is wrong and evil. The South African government of today is just as guilty of aiding the Mugabe regime as the Mbeki government of yesterday did. For all our vaunted human rights culture, we are as low as Mugabe himself. — Justice Malala, The Times

It’s time to topple the tyrant Mugabe. President Robert Mugabe was right when he said only God could remove him. That’s exactly what happens. No tyrant lives for ever. No cruel regime lasts. God acts. And he is acting. An international chorus is at last being raised to bring an end to Mugabe’s brutal regime. —  Dr John Sentamu, Archbishop of York, Guardian

When things cannot possibly get worse, they do. It is plain that soldiers, the ultimate guarantor of Robert Mugabe’s power, are no longer shielded from inflation, running at hundreds of millions per cent. Thousands have been told to work on farms. Many are deserting. The senior ranks — colonels and upwards — still benefit from access to farms and minerals and other business privileges, and are probably still loyal to Mr Mugabe. But the fate of junior officers is looking grimmer. — Economist

Forced action for Zimbabwe?  At some times and in some places diplomacy just doesn’t work because one side simply doesn’t care, or their values are so averse to civilized society that words, hopes, logic and reason are pointless. Whether that is the case in, say, Iran or North Korea or Sudan may be debatable, but there seems — to us, at least — no debate in Zimbabwe under Mr. Mugabe. Has anyone in that part of the world thought of the “f” word — force? — Washington Times

Whither Zimbabwe. I don’t think there’s going to be international military action but there is action coming up to do with the cholera outbreak and of course both Odinga and Tutu have got some record already as having opposed the regime strongly. But they’re still in a minority through Africa I fear. — Dr Geoffrey Hawker, ABC’s The World Today, transcript and mp3