The Zimbabwe government is to withdraw the operating licences of transport companies that shut down during a week of mass action early this month to protest against President Robert Mugabe’s government, state-run ZBC radio station said on Thursday.
Some 44 transport companies in the private sector have already had their licences withdrawn or are in the process of losing them, the radio said.
At the beginning of the protests, called by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the government ordered businesses that had shut to reopen or lose their licences.
The government accused company leaders of barring their employees from working during the week-long protests which took the form of work stoppages and ”peaceful marches for democracy,” in the MDC’s words.
The work stoppages were well followed in Zimbabwe’s cities but attempts to hold marches were put down, often violently, by the security forces and pro-government militias.
Hundreds of MDC members and backers were arrested during the protests, including the party’s leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who has been accused by the state of calling on Zimbabweans to violently oust Mugabe and charged with treason — the second such charge against him, and punishable by death.
Tsvangirai was still in police custody on Thursday, awaiting a high court decision on whether to grant him bail.
The MDC blames Mugabe’s government for the economic and social woes in Zimbabwe, where unemployment is at around 70%, annual inflation higher than 300%, and nearly half the population is threatened by famine caused by a drought and the government’s chaotic land reforms. – Sapa-AFP