A number of people were reportedly left injured after Zimbabwean riot police descended on protesters in the capital of Harare on Wednesday.
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Demonstrators this time marched to the central bank to protest the upcoming introduction of notes with equivalent USA dollar values to exporters to ease a cash shortage in the country.
Zvorwadza added that the protestors had to seek a High Court order for their march to proceed after the police had barred them from demonstrating.
Onlookers, pedestrians and motorists were caught up in the melee as anti-riot police moved in with their batons, maintaining a heavy presence in the city centre after the demonstration was dispersed. Several protestors were beaten as they took to the streets in a peaceful demonstration aimed at venting their anger and frustrations at the imminent introduction of the notes, which the country’s Central Bank says will be equivalent to the United States dollar. “Our message to Mugabe … is that we don’t want those bond notes”.
Another demonstrator, Happymore Chidziva, leader of the MDC-T’s Youth Assembly, said Mr. Mugabe has failed to provide the 2.2 million jobs that he promised prior to his re-election in 2013.
“There will be no business as usual”, he said.
Mugabe, 92, and in power since independence from Britain in 1980, is increasingly under pressure from angry Zimbabweans, as well as his war veteran allies, who last month rebuked him as a manipulative dictator, calling on him to step down.
But as his cash-strapped government struggles to pay civil servants and the military on time, the veteran leader has faced mounting opposition fuelled by internet activism using the hashtag “ThisFlag” – a reference to wearing the national flag in public.
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Mugabe, 92, is increasingly fragile but has vowed to stand for re-election in 2018, though party seniors have always been jockeying to step into the role when he dies.
