A general strike called by Zimbabwe’s opposition to force the release of last month’s election results got off to a slow start yesterday with shops and services open for business as usual.
After authorities had warned they would crack down hard on any unrest during the strike, large numbers of riot police could be seen in the central business district and some townships but there were no immediate reports of violence.
The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), whose leader Morgan Tsvangirai has already claimed victory over President Robert Mugabe in the March 29 poll, has called the strike after failing to win a court order for the results to be released immediately.
PHOTO: AFP
But while some shop owners delayed opening as they gauged the situation, most opened for business with long queues at banks and customers in supermarkets lined up to buy bread.
“I did not even know about this stay-away,” said Mthandazo Ncube, as he headed to work in downtown Harare. “The MDC should have spread the word around first before embarking on the stay-away.”
The party’s number two, secretary-general Tendai Biti, said in a radio interview yesterday that supporters should stay at home rather than take to the streets and risk a confrontation with the security services.
“The calls that have been made inside Zimbabwe are not for any physical confrontation with the dictator [Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe]. The calls that have been are for mere staying away from work. Stay inside so there won’t be anybody in the street,” he said.
“It is a call for protest, it is a call for stay away. So stay away from work. That imposes little, minimum risk,” he said.
Police announced on Monday that they intended to deal “severely and firmly” with any unrest and that both police and army reinforcements had been deployed.
Police roadblocks had been set up overnight along the routes to the city center. At a checkpoint in the heavily-populated suburb of Mbare, police were ordering passengers out of commuter buses before searching them.
But the first day of the stay-away resembled a normal day as apathetic workers went about their usual business.
Meanwhile, South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) party directly contradicted South African President Thabo Mbeki by describing the situation in Zimbabwe as a crisis.
“The ANC regards the [Zimbabwe] ruling party ZANU-PF as an ally. However, it is concerned with the state of crisis that Zimbabwe is in and perceives this as negative for the entire SADC region,” ANC spokeswoman Jesse Duarte said after a meeting of the party’s Central Working Committee on Monday.
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