The strike triggered days of protests. A video of police torturing a woman by repeatedly beating the soles of her feet went viral earlier this week.
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Still, many gathered at the courthouse where Mawarire was supposed to be arraigned. The state alleged that from January to July this year, Mawarire organised a group of people to take over the government through unconstitutional means. The strike by teachers over delayed salaries exacerbated the unrest in Zimbabwe.
“The arrest of Pastor Evan Mawarire appears to be a well-calculated plan to intimidate him and other activists”, Muleya Mwananyanda of Amnesty International said in a statement before his release.
Popular Zimbabwean pastor Evan Mawarire, one of the organisers of the largest protests in years against President Robert Mugabe, was arrested Tuesday and charged with inciting public violence, his lawyer said. “It is hard to imagine what things will look like a week from now, let alone a month, but I believe we are headed for an implosion”, Mawarire said.
The much-hyped July 6 “shutdown Zimbabwe” which was engineered by a group of anti-Government activists with the aid of USA and French embassies was a monumental failure, contrary to privately-owned press and Western propaganda that the stayaway was huge success.
He finishes with a rallying cry to his supporters: “Hold this government to account. Never let them get away with anything”, he said.
“Remember this flag is our flag, no-one else loves Zimbabwe more than a Zimbabwean”.
The State Prosecutor arraigned him with the charge of attempting to overthrow the state via his social media campaign that led to a shut down in most parts of the country last week.
But Mugabe’s security forces have been paid, and have been out in droves after last week’s largely peaceful anti-government mobilization. The New Zealand-based Black Caps touched down in South Africa on Tuesday for a week-long camp in Pretoria, before they transfer to Harare for their warmup match starting on July 22.
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In a video posted on his Facebook on Monday, Mawarire said, issues affecting Zimbabweans have yet to be dealt with, hence the added pressure on Mugabe. Ignatious Chombo, the ruling Zanu-PF party’s administration secretary, has said that western embassies in Harare and opposition parties are trying to cause anarchy.
