Job boycott shuts down much of Zimbabwe as discontent grows

Business activity was severely subdued in Zimbabwe’s capital Harare and other major cities on Wednesday after a social media-organized movement successfully persuaded many urban Zimbabweans to stay at home to protest against the country’s economic decay.

Wages account for 82% of government expenditure, and chronic cash shortages have meant doctors’ and teachers’ June salary payments have been suspended until July 14 and July 17 respectively.

“This is a sign of economic collapse which has left people with nothing more to sacrifice and nothing to lose”, Dumisani Nkomo, a spokesman for the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, told Agence France-Presse.

“We applaud the people of Masvingo for heeding the call to stay away in protest over the decaying economy and misgovernance by Zanu PF”, Murra director, Anoziva Muguti said.

As the protesters started to overtake security officials, the police sought to negotiate with the crowd, concentrated in Harare’s eastern suburbs.

“These guys were driving through the city and slowed down on seeing burning tyres along Harare Road”.

Thirty people were arrested for inciting the protests, police spokeswoman Charity Charamba said.

The omnibus is the most common transportation in Zimbabwe.

“Therefore we warn people to be responsible and ensure that the messages that they send out will not find them afoul of the law”. That leaves little for infrastructure, medicines in hospitals or books for schools. Violent clashes also erupted last weekend at Zimbabwe’s main border post with South Africa, forcing its closure, when the government banned the import of certain goods. Strikes were rare in more than a decade. The groundswell of anti-government protests is the highest since the disputed 2008 elections when Mr. Mugabe refused to relinquish power following his loss to the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) opposition. The last similar protests took place in 1998 when riots erupted over the price of bread.

On Monday, an impromptu protest by taxi drivers turned violent, with rock-throwing young men facing off against squads of riot police firing volleys of tear gas – scenes unseen since a government slum clearance campaign in 2005.

“We are seeing people being pushed into a corner and they have no option but to confront the regime”, Showers Mawowa, research manager at the Cape Town-based civil-rights group Southern African Liaison Office, said by phone Tuesday.

“There isn’t much work being done in the factories anyway, so this will not make much of a difference”, he said. Sources inside Zimbabwe confirm that this morning WhatsApp was blocked and the #ThisFlag tweets are pushing Virtual Private Network as the phrase of the day. “It makes it possible for us to understand what is happening in different parts of the country”, he said.

During the past two months, citizens have been particularly irked by the proposal to introduce “bond notes” and the abrupt removal of some imported items from the Open General Import Licence category.

The surging support emboldened Mawarire to organize such a stayaway in exchange for the government, under veteran President Robert Mugabe, to fire corrupt ministers, abandon radical economic policies, among other demands.

Telecommunications, including internet and WhatApp services were erratic, but the authorities denied jamming the services to cripple strike plans.