The streets of the Zimbabwe capital, Harare, were quiet early on Thursday after civil rights groups and the opposition called for a two-day strike to protest growing social and economic hardships and a crackdown by police against the urban poor.
Few people could be seen on the normally bustling shopping areas at the start of business. While most banks and shops appeared to be open, customers were scarce and many people appeared to have heeded calls for a stayaway.
Southern industrial areas of the capital were also quiet.
Police and army trucks were spotted in some areas, but there was no sign of a major police clampdown. The police had threatened to come down hard on any street protests by civil and democratic rights activists.
The first day of the strike came as President Robert Mugabe was due to open Parliament, the first session by the 150-seat Assembly since his ruling Zanu-PF won disputed elections on March 31.
The 81-year-old head of state told a reception at his official residence in Harare on Wednesday evening that the Southern African country will ”never collapse”.
”We will never collapse. We may have our droughts, but as a people we will never collapse,” Thursday’s edition of the state-controlled Herald quoted him as saying.
The strike has been called for by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), civil rights groups and workers’ and students’ unions to protest shortages of basic commodities, including the staple maize meal, and biting transport problems.
The organisers are also protesting a three-week-old police blitz on ”illegal” flea markets and shack homes.
The action has left an estimated 200 000 people without shelter, while more than 22 000 people have so far been arrested for a variety of alleged crimes, including hoarding basic commodities and dealing on the black market.
Police and members of the army could be seen outside Harare’s Parliament building on Thursday morning. Mugabe was due to make a major policy statement when he opened Parliament at midday.
There have been calls for opposition lawmakers to boycott the ceremony, usually done with pomp and fanfare, in solidarity with Thursday’s protest.
The MDC won only 41 seats to Zanu-PF’s 78-seat majority in polls in March, but the opposition claims there was rigging and it is due to mount court challenges to 16 seats won by Mugabe’s party. — Sapa-DPA