Award-winning author Tsitsi Dangarembga was arrested in the capital of Zimbabwe while security forces patrolled city streets to avoid anti-government protests called by activists for aIt led to state corruption and the worsening of the country’s economic situation.
The novelist was reportedly tied to a police truck on Friday while protesting on a highway in the capital Harare, along with another protester, with placards. Police had banned the protests, warning that anyone who attends “will only be to blame.”
“Arrested! In Borrowdale. Ope, she’ll be fine,” she said on Twitter shortly afterward and posted a photo of her sitting on the floor with another female protester.
“It seems like it was a simple job. Guy showed up and went on and filmed.” Dangarembga.
It came just days after his latest novel, This Mournable Body, entered the list for the prestigious Booker Prize.
Sitting on the floor. pic.twitter.com/GXTbg6lxFW
– Tsitsi Dangarembga (@ efie41209591) July 31, 2020
Fadzayi Mahere, a spokeswoman for the main oOpposition movement to the Democratic Change party, She also said on social media that she had been detained for protesting in her neighborhood. Mahere posted a video of the police moving toward her and telling her to stop recording them. She was later unable to be reached for comment.
Meanwhile, the streets were empty in the cities and towns of Zimbabwe as hundreds of soldiers and police patrolled, controlled checkpoints, and applied a coronavirus blockade.
“The security situation in the country is calm and peaceful.” Paul Nyathi, a police spokesman, said.
Opposition politician Jacob Ngarivhume, from a small party called Transform Zimbabwe, called for the protests nationwide, but people stayed home after protesters were banned.
Mnangagwa, who is under pressure to revive the country’s struggling economy, described the planned protests as “an insurrection to overthrow our democratically elected government.” He warned that security agents “will be vigilant and on high alert.”
Zimbabwe is experiencing its worst economic crisis in more than 10 years, marked by hyperinflation, a local currency that is rapidly depreciating against the US dollar and the acute shortage of foreign exchange. An estimated 90 percent of Zimbabweans have no formal employment.
Critics say Mnangagwa, who imposed a night curfew and restricted free movement last week to curb coronavirus infections, is exploiting a COVID-19 blockade to quell dissent.
As of Friday, Zimbabwe has recorded more than 3,000 cases of coronavirus and 53 related deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
SOURCE:
Al Jazeera and news agencies
.
