Zimbabwe police break up anti-government protest

Organizers of the march in the Harare said 20 people were injured.

Zimbabwe, which was once referred as the “breadbasket of Africa” due to the abundance of food its mostly white farmers exported to other nations, started using foreign currencies like the US dollar and the South African rand in 2009, after the local currency was ruined by hyperinflation.

Critics were of the opinion that the so-called bond notes could spark rampant printing of cash as happened between 2006 and 2008.

A protestor holds a bunch of flowers as police stand by during a demonstration against the introduction of bond notes by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, in Harare, Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2016.

“We know what happens when the central bank prints money”, Promise Mkwananzi, leader of the social media movement #Tajamuka, slang in the Shona language for “defiance”.

In recent months Zimbabwe has had nearly weekly protests often ending in clashes with police, as citizens organize protests against economic hardship.

A similar protest earlier this month by unemployed graduates and a group denouncing a government plan to introduce bond notes in the face of dollar scarcity was also dispersed by police wielding batons and firing water canons.

The photo, snapped as helmeted police caught up with activists protesting on Wednesday in central Harare against the introduction of new banknotes, shows the woman, wearing a doek and carrying a bag over her shoulder and what appeared to be a placard in her hands, was the only protester still standing her ground.

After 36 years of President Robert Mugabe’s authoritarian rule, Zimbabwe has seen a rise in opposition protests fuelled by internet activism using the hashtag ThisFlag.