Home affairs minister Ignatius Chombo on Thursday accused Western countries of plotting the protests.
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“We will not tolerate any illegal demonstration”.
“We have a moral duty to protect citizens of this country and people that do business so that they are not disrupted by malcontents”. Other police have mounted roadblocks on routes leading into the city. The scene quickly devolved with shops burnt and looted in the chaos in central Harare.
Truck-loads of security personnel were deployed to secure the scene, near the national parliament.
Mwayera ordered the police to maintain peace and also barred them from interfering with the demonstrators.
Tsvangirai said the public would not be easily calmed.
Senior Reporter-Government has warned opposition parties and their appendages in the civil society against holding unsanctioned demonstrations that often turn violent saying the police would crack down on such malcontents.
At least 50 people were injured by the police, said former vice president Joice Mujuru, now the head of the People First party and a participant in the demonstration.
Some protesters retaliated by throwing stones at the armed police before being blanketed by a wall of tear gas.
“The crowd can not be accommodated in the central business district of Harare as it interrupts both human and vehicular traffic”, Saunyama said. “The crowd can not be accommodated in the central business district as it interrupts with the human and vehicular traffic”.
“If we needed people to just go to Brazil to sing our national anthem and hoist our flag, we would have sent some of the lovely girls and handsome guys from University of Zimbabwe to represent us”. “Thank you in advance for your co-operation”.
Riot police watch a man with a Zimbabwean flag over his shoulders saluting during a protest in Harare, Friday, Aug. 26, 2016. Police were at the headquarters of the main opposition MDC-T party. “During our march tomorrow, we will hand over a petition to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission and the procession will culminate in an address to the people by the leaders of the political parties”.
The Zimbabwe government security office said in a video that they are “fully aware of the agenda of the opposition political parties and various groups who want global intervention in Zimbabwe’s internal affairs”.
NERA convener Didymus Mutasa, stated that the reason for the march is to press for comprehensive electoral reforms ahead of the 2018 general elections.
In recent weeks, police have been beating up peaceful rallies staged by people anxious about Zimbabwe’s worsening economic crisis. People’s desperation is very deep.
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Earlier in the day, the image of the road sign for Robert Mugabe Road which was pictured vandalised and lying on the tarmac next to the body of a dog was the subject of frenzied social media chatter, with many Zimbabweans suggesting this was highly-symbolic in terms of Mugabe’s administration.
