Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe opened a session of Parliament on Thursday with a speech defending an unpopular police crackdown on street traders and shack dwellers.
At a lavish ceremony in the capital, Harare, marking the first parliamentary session since Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF won disputed elections on March 31, the 81-year-old president inspected a guard of honour and stood to attention during a fly-past by military jets.
The event was boycotted by 41 members of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in a display of solidarity with the urban poor targeted by the police blitz.
In his 30-minute speech, a sombre-looking Mugabe said the clean-up campaign is necessary to ”restore sanity and order” to urban areas.
He said his government remains committed to the development of the informal sector ”albeit in an orderly manner”.
”The current chaotic state of affairs, where [people in the informal sector] operated outside the regulatory framework and in undesignated and crime-ridden areas, could not be countenanced for much longer,” he said.
His speech came on the first day of a general strike called by rights groups, workers and student bodies to protest a three-week-old clear-out of street vendors and people living in makeshift accommodation.
Operation Restore Order has left an estimated 200 000 people homeless after their shacks were demolished. Thousands of flea-market stalls have also been burnt or demolished.
The streets of the capital were quiet and while shops and banks were mainly open, there were few customers.
Organisers of the stayaway, backed by the MDC, say they also want to protest the growing economic and social hardships that include shortages of most basic commodities, including maize meal — the staple food for the country’s 11,6-million people.
In Parliament, Mugabe repeated his party’s plans to amend the Constitution to introduce a 65-member senate in addition to the current 150-seat House of Assembly.
Other amendments will be introduced to ”streamline” his government’s controversial seizure of white-owned land and allow for just one electoral body to conduct elections, Mugabe said.
Mugabe said Parliament will also introduce laws to clamp down on the black market in fuel, foreign currency, basic commodities and precious metals.
”Government will introduce new provisions to existing legislation stipulating mandatory penalties for illicit dealings in foreign currency and precious metals,” he said.
Mugabe’s government has for the past six years been grappling with crippling shortages of hard cash needed to buy medicines, fuel and food. — Sapa-DPA