WEDNESDAY, 7.00AM:
HOURS after facing Harare’s biggest-ever demonstrations, the Zimbabwe government climbed down on a special levy to raise money for war veterans’ pensions. But other aspects of the tax package remain in place.
TUESDAY, 6.00PM:
A MASSIVE nationwide strike in Zimbabwe was marred by violence on Tuesday as heavily armed riot police fired tear gas at demonstraters in the capital, Harare.
The march, called by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, was in protest against new taxes to pay pensions to liberation struggle veterans.
The demonstration, by an estimated 3 000 people, went ahead in defiance of a warning on Monday by the Zimbabwean police commissioner that it was illegal. In a rare show of union-employer solidarity, shops and banks across the country were also closed in protest.
The demonstrators gathered peacefully in front of parliament where they were surrounded by police who fired hundreds of tear gas canisters, then baton-charged the crowd. The police charge caused the crowd to turn angry, and rioting broke out, with car windows smashed and buses and trucks torched.
Trade union leaders and government critics accused police of sparking the violence, and noted that protests in other towns, where police kept away, had been peaceful. Catholic Justice and Peace Commission director Michael Auret said: “The police created the violence. They were in contempt of court.”
All major roads leading to Harare were sealed by riot police to prevent public transport from entering the city. This forced thousands of workers who fled the thick plume of teargas smoke that hung over the city, to walk back to their homes, about 9 to 10 kilometres away.
A civil servant, Felix Mungate, said: “The brutal behaviour by police today reflects government’s senseless sensitivity to criticism. This infringes our freedom of expression, assembly and association.”
A Harare political commentator noted that taxpayers are not against the welfare of ex-combatants but are protesting against government’s “lack of respect for their right to civic participation in public affairs.”