Protests set to continue in Harare despite increasing clamp by police

AS ZIMBABWE prepares for another week of civil unrest in Harare, 67 protesters arrested on Friday will appear in court today.

Following an initial court appearance on Saturday, opposition parties warned protests would not dissipate. Riots saw residents openly clash with police, who used water cannons to disperse groups.

Shops were damaged and some state vehicles set alight.

Over the weekend, Harare was tense with police and military patrolling at night. The city’s oldest township, Mbare, has been a hotbed and this weekend police conducted door-to-door searches.

Some nightclubs and restaurants were forced to close early with some patrons saying on social media that heavy-handed police beat them up. On Saturday morning, businesses on the outskirts of the CBD were also forced to close for fear of a repeat of Friday’s unrest.

Before flying off to Kenya for the Tokyo International Conference on African Development, President Robert Mugabe warned against an “Arab Spring” type of revolution.

“They are burning tyres in the streets in order to get into power,” Mugabe said.

“They are thinking that what happened in the Arab Spring is going to happen in this country, but we tell them that is not going to happen here,” he said. However, the MDC T, which is part of a coalition, says there is no way that Mugabe can stop the mass protests.

“People have been whispering their discontent and now it has just grown bigger and got vocalised and in the process it becomes unstoppable,” MDC T vice president Nelson Chamisa said.

The riots have put a strain on the Zimbabwe Republic Police with the majority of the force being deployed to problem areas.

A failing economy and corruption gave birth to the riots. – AFP