Anti-Robert Mugabe rally is latest in recent unrest fuelled by economic crisis, cash shortages and high unemployment
Riot police in Zimbabwe fired teargas and used water cannon to disperse anti-government protesters as a demonstration against the 92-year-old president, Robert Mugabe, turned violent.
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 almost a decade.
The protesters responded by hurling rocks, setting tyres ablaze and pulling down the sign for a street named after Mugabe, witnesses cited by news agencies said.
Recent unrest has been fuelled by an economic crisis, cash shortages and persistent high unemployment. The government has been repeatedly forced to delay salary payments to teachers, doctors, soldiers and administrators. The country is also suffering a severe drought and is threatened by famine in some parts.
“We are not going anywhere and demonstrating is the only solution left to force the dictator out of office,” said Tapfuma Make, an unemployed 24-year-old from Chitungwiza town, south of Harare, who joined the protest.
Observers say the pressure on Mugabe, Africa’s oldest leader, and the ruling Zanu-PF party is immense.
The most recent rally called for electoral reforms before 2018 when Mugabe, who has led Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980, will seek reelection. Zanu-PF retained power after elections in 2013, which were tainted by allegations of vote-rigging.
Much of the recent activism has bypassed traditional opposition politicians and parties. However, the march on Friday was led by the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), led by Morgan Tsvangirai, and the Zimbabwe People First, formed this year by Joice Mujuru, a former vice-president.
Source: theGuardian