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| Zimbabwean police arrest protesters on July 6 2016, in Bulawayo. (AFP/Getty Images) |
It began on YouTube in April with one man’s frustrated lament for
Zimbabwe. Wrapped in the national flag, railing against the country’s
problems, Pastor Evan Mawarire
broke a spell that had kept Zimbabweans silent for years, too fearful
to protest their anger over government failures and abuses.
On
social media, his hashtag #ThisFlag has become a rallying point for
citizens angry over the economic and political crisis gripping their
country and dire shortages of food and currency.
The hashtag was used to organize a general strike Wednesday as
workers in the private sector and many civil servants stayed home to
protest government corruption, the failure to pay civil servants’ wages
on time and the country’s economic collapse.
Coupled with riots in
Harare on Monday, the rare strike has shaken the government of
President Robert Mugabe that has ruled since Zimbabwean independence in
1980.
Banks and businesses were closed in major cities, while Zimbabwean independent media reported
clashes between riot police and protesters in the Mufakose neighborhood
southeast of Harare and rioting in the Makokoba neighborhood in the
southern city of Bulawayo.
In
an interview on South African radio, Mawarire said the strike was a
protest of the government’s failure to deal with corruption, injustice
and poverty.
“We are tired and everyone identifies and agrees to
say enough is enough,” he said. “The problem is the government has not
learned how to respond to the citizens. They’ve always responded with a
heavy hand. They respond with banning. They respond with threatening.
They respond with intimidation.”
Zimbabwe faces severe shortages
of American dollars — which have been its currency since 2009 — leaving
the government unable to pay doctors, hospital staff, teachers, civil
servants and other public sector employees on time. Many people are
struggling to buy food and other staple goods, or pay school fees.
Zimbabwe abandoned its own currency because of rampant
hyperinflation. In May, the government tried to reintroduce bond notes
to replace American dollars, but the public has shown little confidence
in the notes.
The
government also attempted to ban imports of many goods from South
Africa in hopes of boosting local businesses. But because Zimbabwe
doesn’t produce many of those items itself, the move only outraged much
of the public.
Opposition protests and strikes have often flopped.
Mawarire lauded Wednesday’s work stoppage as a success. “Fed up and not
afraid,” he posted on Facebook, adding the slogan, “Bolder Citizens, A
Better Zimbabwe.”
Jonathan Moyo, a government education minister and close Mugabe ally, warned that people could be fired for failing to come to work.
“A
day like this presents immense opportunities to discover who is who
& what they are really up to. Tremendous!” he posted on Twitter.
Moyo
indicated late in the day that the stoppage had some impact in cities
but declared it a failure in rural areas, tweeting: “So the success of
the stay away, shutdown or whatever, was 20% at most & only in towns
like Harare while it was 0% in most of the country!”
The Herald, a
government-owned newspaper, warned in a tweet Wednesday morning that
police were “ready to deal with rogues.” It also reported the arrest of a
man in Bulawayo armed with grenades, which he “intended to use to
foment anarchy” during the strike.
The battle between the
government and the people also appeared to play out in the digital
realm, as the government warned that anyone sharing “subversive”
messages or posts on social media could be traced and would be
prosecuted.
When the popular messaging app was disabled for
several hours, leaving protesters unable to communicate with each other,
activists blamed the government. A hacker with the Twitter handle
0011Send1 claimed responsibility for temporarily shutting down the
websites of the government, ruling party and state broadcasting company.
The
work stoppage followed violent clashes Monday between police and
commuter mini-bus drivers who were protesting police harassment and
demands for bribes.
The protests come as 92-year-old Mugabe faces
deep scrutiny over his basic fitness for the job. Over the last year, he
has fallen asleep in public meetings, stumbled in public and read the
wrong speech in parliament without realizing it.
Despite all that, he has insisted that he will govern to the age of 100.
Factions of his ruling ZANU-PF party, however, are already fighting over who will succeed him.
Speculation
is mounting in Zimbabwe’s independent press that his wife, Grace
Mugabe, may eventually try to win control of the presidency. Over the
last year, the ruling party has purged dozens of members who have
expressed support for a rival, Emmerson Mnangagwa, the deputy president
and a former security minister.
http://www.latimes.com/world/africa/la-fg-zimbabwe-unrest-snap-story.html
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