16th August, 2019
Scores of people gathered in a square in the capital Harare to demonstrate against the country’s worsening economy, despite massive police deployment and a ban upheld by a court the same morning.
Police cornered one group of protesters and beat them with batons.One woman was seen being carried into a Red Cross ambulance.
The protesters then regrouped, singing songs condemning police brutality. As the crowd swelled, police fired teargas and water cannons.
“People were just singing… peacefully. Then they saw the police coming — they were encircling people, they were actually surrounding the supporters then they came closer to us and started beating people,” a 35-year-old protester who gave her name as Achise told AFP.
She said police beat “an old woman”.
“This is worse than during colonial times,” said a man who declined to be identified.
Police said in a statement they had arrested 91 people for various offences, but rights groups said there had been 128 arrests.
Dozens of police were deployed in running battles with protesters, many of them from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
The protest took place in Africa Unity Square, overlooking the Zimbabwean parliament, is where crowds gathered in November 2017 to demand Mugabe, the country’s long-time autocratic ruler, step down.
MDC leader Nelson Chamisa slammed Friday’s “brutal” clampdown as even worse than during Mugabe’s era.
“We not only have an illegitimate regime in this country, we have a rogue regime,” Chamisa said. Seven people suffered serious injuries, including a woman, he said.
“What is clear is that it’s turning out that the regime in Harare is far worse than the Mugabe regime. One would be persuaded to think that Mugabe is back.”
Friday’s protests went ahead after MDC plans for large-scale marches were banned by police late Thursday.
An MDC attempt to challenge the ban in court was then rejected.
The party’s vice president, Tendai Biti, told reporters outside the High Court: “The fascist regime has denied the right for Zimbabweans to demonstrate”.
“There is no difference between Mnangagwa and Mugabe. We jumped from the frying pan into the fire after the November coup,” he said.
Supported by the military, Mnangagwa took over from Mugabe before winning disputed elections in July 2018.
He vowed to revive Zimbabwe’s sickly economy. But many Zimbabweans say the situation has worsened, with shortages of basic goods and skyrocketing prices.
Around five million people — almost a third of the country’s 16 million population — are in need of aid and at least half of them are on the cusp of “starvation”, the World Food Programme (WFP) warned this month.
The government, through the information ministry’s Twitter account, described Friday’s violence as “a few skirmishes”.
Friday’s protests are the first since rallies in January against Mnangagwa’s decision to hike fuel prices that ended in deadly clashes with troops.
At least 17 people were killed and scores wounded after the army used force, including live ammunition, to crush the demonstrations.