Authorities in Zimbabwe staged a massive security operation on Wednesday in a bid to head off a series of banned protests against the economic crisis presided over by veteran President Robert Mugabe.
Armed police fanned out across the capital, Harare, conducting body searches and spot checks of cars at roadblocks, in scenes repeated in other major towns and cities throughout the country.
Organisers from the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) were hoping that thousands of protestors would try to defy a ban on unauthorised political protests by taking part in marches across the country.
The protests in the afternoon are seen as the first test of strength of the opposition to veteran President Robert Mugabe since a bitter split in the ranks of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) last November.
ZCTU secretary general Wellington Chibebe insisted that the protesters would not be deterred by the security forces, although only two labour unions had so far confirmed their participation.
A few hours before the start of the protests, there was little sign of large numbers of demonstrators on the streets.
George Kuriyati, a salesperson with a retail chain, said most Zimbabweans were either too scared or too preoccupied with trying to earn a living and few were likely to take part in the march.
”To many people, strikes are either too risky, judging from the way people have been beaten up for striking, or a waste of time since previous strikes have not yielded much.”
The ZCTU is demanding minimum wages and salaries in line with the poverty threshold, income-tax cuts and easy access to antiretroviral drugs.
It is also calling for an end to the arbitrary arrests and beatings of street hawkers and self-employed citizens.
”We are ready to take to the streets,” Chibebe said.
”Despite threats by the police to crush us, we will not be deterred. Are we not already being crushed by hunger and poverty?”
National police spokesperson Wayne Bzudzijena, however, said the authorities would not allow any disruption to daily life.
”The police will be out in full force to maintain peace and order,” Bzudzijena said.
”Those who want to go about their normal, legitimate business in town can do so without fear.”
Zimbabwe’s economy has been heading downhill for the last six years, characterised by triple-digit inflation, high unemployment and chronic shortages of fuel and other basics such as cooking oil and sugar.
However, the opposition to the octogenarian Mugabe has been unable to take advantage of the crisis, with the MDC splitting into rival factions over its leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s decision to boycott senate polls last November.
MDC secretary general Tendai Biti said the movement would ”fully support the ZCTU strike”.
”The working people of Zimbabwe, being the ZCTU membership, are the core constituency of our party. In this regard, the MDC and its members will take part in the workers’ action,” he said in a statement.
Protests by the ZCTU, formerly led by Tsvangirai, threatened to bring Zimbabwe to its knees in the late 1990s as hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets.
However, the opposition’s heyday has long since passed amid mutual recriminations and brutal crackdowns against more recent protests have knocked the wind out of the anti-government movement. — Sapa-AFP