The southern African nation has a history of violence against opponents of Mugabe, where police have in the last few months crushed demonstrations against high unemployment, acute cash shortages and corruption.
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Some people caught up in the melee, including children going to a nearby agricultural show, ran for shelter in the magistrate’s court while riot police pursued the protesters and threatened journalists covering the rally.
Usually bustling with hawkers, the capital’s streets Friday were bristling with police wielding batons and tear gas canisters.
Leading the protests are Tsvangirai, who is the former prime minister and now leads the MDC-T party, and former vice president Joice Mujuru.
The organizers of the march – the National Electoral Reform Agenda – said dozens were injured.
“If that was meant to cow us from demonstrating, then the opposite has been the case. Zimbabweans are beginning to say enough is enough”, said another opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai at a press conference after the demonstration was dispersed.
“We hope there will be an election sooner than 2018 so we can sort out this mess”.
“Some people joined the protest after being tear-gassed by the police and I think that it was just retaliation from angry people, but as MDC we were not part of that”, Chidhakwa said.
Home Affairs Minister Ignatius Chombo on Thursday accused opposition leaders of being “foreign agents” who were trying to bring about global intervention in Zimbabwe’s affairs.
“The Embassy of Canada reiterates its call on all stakeholders to respect the Constitution of Zimbabwe, in particular, the freedom to peacefully demonstrate, the right to personal liberty, the right to personal security and the rights of arrested and detained persons”.
The move by the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) was unconstitutional as later affirmed by the High Court and going forward, the force must not be allowed to act in such a partisan manner. The more they are suppressed, the greater the rebound. People’s anger and desperation are real …
More than a hundred officers, backed by armoured trucks, moved to block a march on Friday – organised by a coalition of opposition groups in Harare, the capital – in the latest round of the most intense unrest in the former British colony for nearly a decade. We have a moral duty to protect people that do business in the CBD area so that they are not unnecessarily disrupted by these malcontents that were running around the city yesterday (Wednesday). She ordered the police to maintain peace and barred them from interfering with the demonstrators.
“They actually meant to say they would quash any legal gathering as they have done today by suppressing a sanctioned march”.
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The coalition said in a statement it would demand that Mugabe’s government be held accountable for failing to deal with multiple economic crises.
