(Adds Rice, govt spokesman comment, background)

By Wendell Roelf

CAPE TOWN, Dec 5 (Reuters) - South Africa will send a team of senior government officials to Zimbabwe next week to assess the food crisis in the neighbouring country and investigate what aid is needed, a government spokesman said on Friday.

Zimbabwe has declared a national emergency and appealed for international help as it battles a cholera outbreak that has killed 570 people with 12,700 reported cases of the disease.

Economic meltdown in Zimbabwe, isolated by Western countries under President Robert Mugabe's increasingly authoritarian rule, has left the health system ill-prepared to cope with the cholera epidemic that it once would have prevented or treated easily.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in Copenhagen that it was "well past time" for Mugabe to leave office and nations in the region needed to take the lead in putting pressure on him to quit.

South African government spokesman Themba Maseko said a team of officials will visit Zimbabwe next week to investigate the food and health crisis.

"The purpose of the visit will be to assess the situation on the ground, determine the level of assistance required and to consult with the representatives of the various stakeholders in Zimbabwe on how a ... distribution and monitoring mechanism could be set up," Maseko said.

Thousands of Zimbabweans are believed to cross the border, often illegally, into South Africa each day. A cholera centre has been set up in the South African border town of Musina.

The cholera cases have been fuelled by the collapse of the water system, which has forced residents to drink from contaminated wells and streams.

STARVATION LOOMS

There is not enough money to pay doctors and nurses or buy medicine and aid agency Oxfam said at least 300,000 people weakened by lack of food are in danger from the epidemic.

"Millions of people were already facing starvation. With unemployment over 80 percent, and food unavailable across the country, they now have to contend with cholera and other diseases as the water and sanitation systems break down," Peter Mutoredzanwa, Country Director for Oxfam in Zimbabwe, said.

Mutoredzanwa said in a statement almost half of Zimbabwe's 13 million population have been weakened by serious food shortages and indications were that more than 5 million people will urgently need food aid by January.

South Africa will announce an aid package for Zimbabwe next week, Maseko said, adding Zimbabwe's political parties have agreed that all aid should be distributed in a non-partisan way.

"Initial contact has been made with the three main political parties. All parties have agreed that this (food and humanitarian aid) distribution ... needs to be done in a non-partisan manner," Maseko said.

South Africa's Archbishop Desmond Tutu said late on Thursday Mugabe must step down or be removed by force.

"I think now that the world must say: 'You have been responsible with your cohorts for gross violations, and you are going to face indictment in The Hague unless you step down," Tutu, a Nobel peace prize winner, told Dutch television.

Hopes of rescuing Zimbabwe from the humanitarian crisis are complicated by the deadlock between Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai over how to implement a power-sharing pact.

Western nations, which accused Mugabe of running the once prosperous nation into the ground, have promised aid. European Union ministers have agreed to provide an initial 200,000 euros ($255,700) to the Red Cross and other aid agencies. (Writing by Marius Bosch; Editing by Peter Millership)

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