Jittery govt so wary of a ‘Bouazizi moment’

MANY may have wondered why the Zimbabwe government is so terrified by a video clip that went viral recently of a small crowd mobbing a police officer who had allegedly struck a nine-month old baby with a baton causing its death. In the clip, an agitated young woman carrying a baby which seemed limp in her hand demands answers from the police officer who had allegedly killed her baby. e small mob present seems likely to mete out instant justice on the police officer.

e clip was circulated widely on social media. It was then taken up by political activists who expressed outrage at what looked like a good example of police brutality. e police were later to issue a statement saying that no baby had been killed by a police officer because no such report had been made.

But why the obvious panic by government? e people who were arrested in the aftermath of the circulation of the clip are known political activists whose loathing for the government is well known. In July last year they were arraigned before the courts for inciting violence when they called for a national demonstration on July 31 which they hoped would topple the present government.

It is clear there are loads of political activists looking for a “Bouazizi moment”. Mohamed Bouazizi was the young Tunisian vendor who in December 2010 set himself alight protesting a police ban on him selling fruit to earn a living. His act sparked the first open protests against the Tunisian government and also ignited demonstrations across the Arab world, a movement that became known as the Arab Spring.

e Arab Spring resulted in the fall of some of the most entrenched dictators in the world including Libya’s Muamar Gadaffi, Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak, Tunisia’s Zine el-Abidine Ben-Ali and Yemen’s Ali Abdullah Saleh.

e government is wary of an incident that may spark so much outrage it will send people on the streets; it knows that most opposition politicians are waiting for just such a moment or are trying to create one hence it’s coming down so heavily on possible leaders of such demonstrations. Job Sikhala, Hopewell Chin’ono and Fadzayi Mahere have been leading from the front in their effort to spark a Bouazizi moment; and the government is scared of them.