Few Zimbabweans have forgotten activist Itai Dzamara, who was abducted from a Harare barber shop in March 2015 after calling on longtime Zimbabwe leader Robert Mugabe to step down.
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A grouping of more than 20 opposition political parties in Zimbabwe under the banner of the National Electoral Reform Agenda (Nera) said Friday it will not be cowed by police brutality.
A court-approved protest staged by Zimbabwe’s opposition supporters seeking electoral reforms turned violent Friday in Harare when it was broken up by police. “They are thinking that what happened in the Arab Spring is going to happen in this country, but we tell them that is not going to happen here”, said Mugabe in remarks broadcast by state television.
The police action led to running battles with protesters who threw rocks at police, burned tires and set market stalls on fire.
“We are going next Friday to do exactly the same as we have done today”, NERA convener Didymus Mutasa said while presenting the joint press statement in Harare Friday. “The protests will continue until we vote Mugabe out of power”, Mutasa said, adding they would push their concerns through Sadc and the African Union.
Tsvangirai said the people’s anger had become very deep and they were now showing their desperation.
Student leader Siziba was reportedly shoved into a silver auto as opposition supporters who had tried to stage a march calling for electoral reforms were chased into the centre of Harare by police with teargas and water cannons.
More than a hundred police officers in riot gear, backed up by water cannons and armoured trucks, occupied the venue that opposition parties had planned to use for their demonstration.
Police spokeswoman Charity Charamba said the force was still assessing the day’s events.
“We view this as victory for democracy”, opposition spokesman Douglas Mwonzora said after the court ruling. The worst violence was witnessed along Chinhoyi Street when Zanu-PF youths manning vending stalls at Copacabana bus terminus threatened the demonstrators who had ordered them to close their businesses.
Zimbabwe’s opposition supporters set up a burning barricade as they clash with police during a protest for electoral reforms on August 26, 2016 in Harare, Zimbabwe.
“Throughout the day, people came out on the street to protest, then the police came out and pushed them back”.
Government critics want global observers, including the United Nations, to monitor the poll in 2018. They are also calling on Mugabe to dismiss corrupt ministers, scrap plans to introduce local bank notes and end cash shortages.
The latest demonstrations come almost two months after the biggest large scale “stay at home” strike in Zimbabwe since 2007, inspired by social media movements such as #ThisFlag led by pastor Evan Mawarire.
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Home Affairs Minister Ignatius Chombo on Thursday called opposition leaders “foreign agents” using protests to cause chaos in order to justify global intervention.
