Boycott brings Zimbabwe to a halt

Published Jul 6, 2016

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Harare: Businesses and schools closed in Zimbabwe’s main towns yesterday as 
citizens staged stay-at-home protests over the government’s failure to halt a worsening economy crunch.

Riot police armed with rifles and batons engaged in cat-and-mouse chases with youths, who placed barricades and burnt tyres on the streets in some suburbs in Harare to block traffic heading into the city centre.

In the second city of Bulawayo, the streets were unusually quiet, with shops, banks and government offices closed after police, anticipating trouble, ordered shops to shut and fired tear gas to disperse gatherings.

“All the shops are closed. I haven’t seen anything like this. This is close to a complete shutdown,” said Jeffery Madoba, a local resident.

“There is confusion. People want to go back to their homes, but there is no transport and the police are dispersing even small groups waiting at the bus stops.”

Schools in all major towns sent pupils back home after teachers failed to turn up for work.

Internet and WhatsApp connections were jammed in the morning and the government later warned of arrests for people caught creating or circulating information deemed to cause public unrest.

“Any person caught in possession of, generating sharing or passing on abusive, threatening, subversive or offensive telecommunication messages that may be deemed to cause despondency, incite violence and cause unrest will be arrested,” the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe said.

Civic groups circumvented tough security laws and used social media to call for a work boycott yesterday to pressure President Robert Mugabe’s government to address economic troubles, including high unemployment, hunger in rural areas, cash shortages and a failure to pay its
workers on time.

The strike came on the back of similar anti-government protests in recent weeks.

On Monday, police arrested at least 100 residents and minibus taxi drivers in Mabvuku suburb and the shanty town of Epworth during protests by transporters over police roadblocks.

Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights said several people were arrested in various parts of the country during yesterday’s protests.

The government warned civil servants they risked 
losing their jobs if they joined the protest.

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