Zimbabwe protest crackdown fuels further outrage

By Jessie Fox | Washington Times |

Despite a crackdown by the government of 92-year-old autocrat Robert Mugabe, restive Zimbabweans are showing new signs of shutting down what has become the biggest popular protest in years to Mr. Mugabe’s rule.

Civil servants who hadn’t received their June salaries refused to go to work last Wednesday, while other citizens barricaded roads with rocks and engaged in running battles with the police, who used tear gas.

Police said they detained about 50 protesters, but organizers of the “stay away” say they plan to protest again on Wednesday and Thursday.

“There was unbelievable cruelty,” Wilf Mbanga, the founding editor of The Zimbabwean, said. “But instead of calming the people, it has emboldened them. It has made them mad and more determined to get rid of this regime.”

The second wave of protests came the day after police arrested Evan Mawarire, the pastor responsible for organizing the job boycott on social media. Police have arrested Mr. Mawarire on charges of inciting violence, and officials have said that police will be out “in full force” to deal with the national strike.

“Let me warn the instigators behind the intended protest that they will face the full wrath of the law,” Home Affairs Minister Ignatius Chombo told reporters Tuesday in the Harare, according to The Associated Press.

Mr. Mugabe, the only ruler the southern African nation has known since achieving independence 36 years ago, has been criticized for repeatedly failing to follow through on promised political and economic reforms. The country’s economy has collapsed, leaving an estimated 90 percent of Zimbabweans out of work.

Zimbabwe’s constitution remains unclear on how to select a new leader if Mr. Mugabe becomes unable to serve or dies in office. Still, his waning health has politicians, both supporters and opposition figures, jockeying for power in the post-Mugabe era.

Mr. Mbanga said the recent protests have not been fueled by opposition political parties but by ordinary citizens who are suffering.

“The opposition parties are merely egging people on and cheering. It’s a people’s movement, and it’s the people who are affected by the daily grind who are behind this,” Mr. Mbanga said.

The editor, who was forced to move to Britain to start his paper, said the tipping point came three weeks ago when the government enacted an import ban. Zimbabwe was once the breadbasket of the region, but now more than a quarter of the nation’s 14 million people depend on food aid and cross-border trade.

“What does that look like for a standard Zimbabwean who has been surviving on cross-border trade because the country is not producing and there’s no industry?” Nyaradzo Mashayamombe, a women’s rights activist from Zimbabwe, said on a Washington visit last week. “It means that there’s more oppression, and many people are going to have to depend on the few.”

Ms. Mashayamombe told a gathering at the National Endowment for Democracy that the cash-broke government has not spent efficiently, citing Mr. Mugabe’s recent announcement that the government had misplaced $15 billion in government revenue as an example.

“This money could have helped women get better education for their children, bettering their lives, and it could have resuscitated industry, which have collapsed in Zimbabwe,” Ms. Mashayamombe said. “And we know this is just a scratch on the surface.”

The International Monetary Fund has agreed to lend $110 million dollars to the government this year, aiming to make a small dent in repaying its $10 billion dollar debt.

Ms. Mashayamombe expressed concern that as the government tries to meet IMF’s requirements, it will continually shortchange the needs of ordinary citizens. She said it’s good that the international community is engaging with her country, but the government needs to follow the constitutional processes when enacting policy.

“The government has to follow proper procedure and go to the people,” Ms. Mashayamombe said. “That way there is an introduction of these new policies, and there is also an engagement of the masses.” Washington Times