National strike to go ahead as riot police deploy

Zimbabwean riot police patrolled Harare’s poor townships on Monday before a two-day national strike over soaring fuel prices, but union leaders said there was no danger of violence from their members, Reuters reported.
The main labour movement called the strike for Tuesday and Wednesday after President Robert Mugabe’s government refused to reverse a nearly 70 percent hike in fuel prices announced on 12 June. The government has declared the strike illegal and promised to protect workers who ignore the call by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), which has 1.2 million members.

Police clashed in Mabvuku township last week with protesters who barricaded a main road to protest the fuel price increases.

In Zimbabwe’s second city, Bulawayo, police said they were ready to deal with violence. “We have enough officers on standby to deal with any eventuality that might necessitate police action,” police spokesman Mthokozisi Manzini-Moyo told reporters.

Last year Mugabe’s government deployed police and reserve army units to quell food riots that gripped Harare’s poor townships for three days in protest against rocketing prices. ZCTU president Lovemore Matombo said the labour movement was determined to have a peaceful protest and urged members to stay off the streets to avoid trouble. “We are working for a peaceful strike, but we are worried that some government agents might try to provoke violence to discredit the ZCTU or to find a reason to arrest the ZCTU leadership,” Matombo told Reuters.