Zimbabwe police on Wednesday imposed a three-month ban on political rallies and protests to calm rising tensions in Harare’s volatile townships, a move the opposition likened to ”a state of emergency”.
The ban, announced in state newspapers, followed weekend clashes between the police and opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) supporters in Highfield township — a traditional hotspot of opposition politics — which saw riot squads fire teargas and water cannon to stop an MDC rally.
State media has said the police feared the MDC wanted to use the rally to launch new protests against President Robert Mugabe’s government, but the MDC says it wanted to start its 2008 presidential campaign.
Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980, turned 83 on Wednesday.
Police in Harare published notices on Wednesday saying there had been ”pandemonium, looting and destruction of property” following opposition political rallies in some townships this month, which warranted a temporary ban until May.
”The holding of rallies and demonstrations in Mbare district [and Harare South] is prohibited from … February 20 2007 to May 20 2007; that is, a period of three months,” the police announcement said.
The prohibition order affects Highfield where the police say they arrested 40 opposition supporters following the weekend clashes. They would be charged with public violence.
Tensions are high in the Southern African country over a deepening economic crisis marked by spiralling inflation, which at 1 600% is the highest in the world, shortages of foreign currency, food and fuel and surging unemployment.
MDC spokesperson Nelson Chamisa said the latest move showed Mugabe was unsettled by growing anger over a crumbling economy largely blamed on his politically driven policies.
”It is clear the regime is panicking. They are trying to impose a state of emergency … this is tantamount to banning the MDC and all political activity,” said Chamisa, vowing to continue ”to organise our meetings and rallies where necessary”.
Police on Wednesday continued to patrol some poor townships and the city centre, a show of force analysts said was meant to pre-empt any action by the opposition.
Zimbabwe has since the start of the year witnessed a spate of industrial strikes for higher wages, including by doctors and some teachers, and unions are threatening more job boycotts, which authorities fear could spill onto the streets.
Mugabe denies running down the economy and says his government is a victim of a Western sabotage campaign over his policy of seizing land from white farmers to resettle blacks.
Mugabe — who remains defiant in the face of the damaging economic crisis — denied opposition charges that he wanted to hang onto power after the end of his current term next year.
Passport backlog
Meanwhile, the Herald Online reported on Wednesday that the Zimbabwean government has a backlog of 300 000 applications for passports and does not have the resources to process them.
Registrar General Tobaiwa Mudede said as a result of the backlog, emergency travel documents were being issued to those who needed to travel outside the country, but some countries such as New Zealand did not accept these.
Giving oral evidence on the challenges the registry faced before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Defence and Home Affairs, Mudede complained that people arrested for forging documents were released on bail and would then escape prosecution by leaving the country.
Another problem was the number of people approaching the registry for birth certificates and other national identity documents who were not citizens of Zimbabwe, although they lived in the country.
”Quite a number of people seeking documents are not citizens of this country and we have a problem. You go to the farms, you hear the same song, we are not getting birth certificates — check on them, they are aliens,” Mudede said.
But Kambuzuma legislator Willias Madzimure from the MDC questioned Mudede on why his office hastily withdrew citizenship from people before firm reasons were established.
A decision to strip chief executive of the Mail & Guardian newspaper in South Africa, Trevor Ncube, of his citizenship was recently overturned by a Zimbabwean high court. — Reuters, Sapa