TIGblogs TIG | TIGblogs GROUP TIGBLOGS LOGIN SIGNUP
The Power of the Rising Development Generation Africa
The Power of the Rising Development Generation Africa


Today in Zimbabwe
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

A call for an indefinite stayaway by Zimbabwe's opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, had a mixed response on 15 April, the day protest action began as most private commuter operators withheld their transport but resumed normal operations by midmorning, when most businesses in the capital, Harare, opened their doors after adopting a wait-and-see approach.

"I could not put on a suit because I was afraid that I could be harassed by people who might have thought that I was betraying them," a public relations consultant, who identified himself only as "John", said..

"The truth of the matter is that I support the stayaway, but my boss is a ZANU-PF supporter and I fear being victimised." About half of his colleagues had said they could not come to work because there was no transport.

The MDC's call to informal traders to refrain from business was doomed from the start, although youths forced some vendors to pack up their stalls.

"I am in support of the call to have the results of the presidential election made known, for we are in a state of anxiety, but the stomach comes first. As an informal trader, the sole breadwinner in my family, the quandary is between running around to sell my second-hand clothes and being seated at home to show solidarity with the MDC," Tariro Chiwewete, 40, a single mother of three, said.

"I think [President] Mugabe and his lieutenants know that their time is over and are just trying to provoke people to stage mass protests so that they can find a reason to stay in power. How else can one explain their reluctance to announce the results? It shows they have been beaten," she retorated.

The MDC is adopting a more militant stance against Mugabe's ZANU-PF government over its refusal to release the results of the presidential poll on 29 March.

A time for destiny

A High Court petition by the MDC to force the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to publish the results was dismissed with costs on 14 April; in response the MDC has turned to its urban strongholds and called for an indefinite mass stayaway.

In a statement on 14 April the MDC said: "For over two weeks since 29 March, ZEC is failing to release the presidential poll results, a situation that has caused an electoral impasse, as the people of Zimbabwe who voted in their millions have been waiting patiently for the results."

The statement said the time was ripe for Zimbabweans to take "destiny into their own hands as the ZANU-PF regime is not letting them have peace and democracy", and urged workers, businesspeople and informal traders to stay at home until the ZEC released the presidential results.

The MDC insists that according to results published outside each polling station, their leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, won the presidential poll by the required 50 percent plus one vote, negating the need for a second round of voting.

The ZEC has announced senatorial and parliamentary election results, in which the ruling ZANU-PF lost its majority in parliament for the first time since independence from Britain in 1980.

After publishing these results, the electoral commission secretly moved its national command centre in Harare, and has argued that the delay was a consequence of it collating and verifying the presidential ballots.

The commission has heeded a call by ZANU-PF to recount votes in 23 constituencies where it claims Mugabe was cheated of votes. The recount will take place on 19 April, even though the High Court ordered the recount to be stopped, according to local reports.

The MDC described the 29 March elections as a referendum for "food, jobs and a better Zimbabwe", and said "a shocked ZANU-PF regime has failed to come to terms with the defeat and is doing everything in its power in order to subvert the people of Zimbabwe's will."

The police, who have banned demonstrations, said in a statement responding to the stayaway that "the call by the MDC Tsvangirai faction is aimed at disturbing peace and will be resisted firmly by the law enforcement agents, whose responsibility is to maintain law and order in any part of the country."

On the eve of the stayaway police patrolled the capital's suburbs in riot gear and on the day police trucks cruised the streets, with the police chanting revolutionary songs and beating the sides of their vehicles with batons in an in an apparent show of force.

Labour unions may join stayaway

Lovemore Matombo, president of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), a militant labour federation that has also urged the ZEC to speedily release the results of the presidential vote, warned that his organisation might join the stayaway call.

"This [mass stayaway] seems the most immediate option that the MDC has after all the other gentlemanly strategies: going to court, approaching SADC [Southern African Development Community] and talking to ZEC, failed," Matombo said.

"Adopting militancy is a potent strategy in our given circumstances, and my personal feeling is that the MDC took too long to realise that it should effectively use the urban voter as a vehicle to push the government to accept the importance of publicising the results," he commented.

Matombo said the delay in announcing the results was pushing the country "towards an explosion and chaos", and vowed that the ZCTU "would not sit back and watch as the political situation degenerates".

"Government might take advantage of a seemingly docile population and declare everything in its favour, but the time will come when we will pour into the streets and show them that we cannot be taken for granted," Matombo said.

April 16, 2008 | 10:38 AM Comments  0 comments

Tags:
You must be logged in to add tags.


Henry Ekwuruke's Profile

Henry Ekwuruke's Friends


Latest Posts
Kids learn media,...
Untitled
Untitled
Untitled
New HIV/Aids...

Monthly Archive
March 2004
April 2004
May 2004
June 2004
July 2004
August 2004
September 2004
October 2004
November 2004
December 2004
January 2005
February 2005
March 2005
April 2005
May 2005
June 2005
July 2005
September 2005
October 2005
November 2005
December 2005
January 2006
February 2006
March 2006
April 2006
May 2006
June 2006
July 2006
August 2006
September 2006
October 2006
November 2006
December 2006
January 2007
March 2007
April 2007
May 2007
June 2007
July 2007
August 2007
September 2007
October 2007
November 2007
December 2007
January 2008
February 2008
March 2008
April 2008
May 2008
June 2008

Change Language


Tags Archive
abiastate africa cherrieland communitydevelopmentnetwork generationafricaprogram life nigerdelta nigeria umuahia voicesfromthevillage

Filter By Type
Events
News
Travel
Topics

Friends
ABAYOMI AYOOLA EMMANUEL
Arundhaty Parida
ATTA UR REHMAN QUREASHI
Ayodeji Thomas Adewunmi
Brian
bridgett
C. Gudz
Carlos
Comdr. Little
Drbadr
Esther Agbarakwe
Eugenia Bivines
Francis
Franziska Seel
Frederick Bernas
Gerald Derome
hj
Hugh Switzer
Jamleck Chomba
Jason Haber
Jennifer Corriero
Josephine Simmons
joyce
Katherine
LauraK
LLOYDLUNA.com
Odo Phil Nkeiru
ody
onyinye
Ricardo Baruch
Sebastian St.Troy
seriousspy
Sessi
Shiyana Hunter
Sivakumar Rajendran
The Editor
yandagi

Links
UNICEF
Youth at UN


236351 views
Important Disclaimer