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Angry residents beat up police
Foster Dongozi, The Standard (Zimbabwe)
May 22, 2005

http://www.thestandard.co.zw/read.php?st_id=2449

FRUSTRATED residents of Chitungwiza rose up on Friday, after enduring days of brutality and intimidation and fought running battles with police officers who were demolishing tuck-shops and confiscating goods from vendors.

Police and residents, as well as children were engaged in running battles, resulting in the stoning of a ZUPCO bus and a supermarket in the area.

MDC president, Morgan Tsvangirai, lashed out at the government, saying the ongoing clampdown in urban areas to flush out alleged illegal foreign currency dealers, flea market and tuck shop operators was a government sponsored exercise to punish urban dwellers for voting for the MDC in the 31 March general elections.

The police blitz was also unleashed on other MDC strong-holds of Harare, Bulawayo and Gweru.

Other areas that were also targeted include Harare's Kuwadzana Extension, Highfield and Epworth.

Unconfirmed reports said some police details may have sustained injuries when they faced a barrage of missiles from the defiant residents of St Mary's.

Job Sikhala, the Member of Parliament for the area, confirmed the skirmishes in the volatile constituency but was quick to distance himself from the violence.

'Kwakagwiwa hondo inohlisa muSt Mary's." (There was a fierce fighting in St Mary's).

Sikhala said: "It was not something that was organised. It was the people's combined eruptive anger."

Police spokesperson, Superintendent Oliver Mandipaka, was said to be "busy" according to a person who answered his cellphone when The Standard sought his comment.

A small detachment of police details also reportedly ran for dear life as an angry mob bayed for their blood. Re-enforcements came to their rescue at Huruyadzo.

A resident from St Mary's who spoke to The Standard said: "We could not allow the police to confiscate goods sold by our parents because the money that they earn sends the children to school."

Speaking in an interview with The Standard, Tsvangirai said the government wanted to provoke urban residents into resisting the brutal campaign as an excuse to declare a State of Emergency.

On 10 May, Police struck at the Registrar-General's Office and arrested 94 people in a "clean up" campaign of people accused of creating artificially long passport queues.

On Wednesday, police descended on Harare and arrested nearly 7 000 alleged illegal foreign currency dealers and stall-holders at licensed flea markets. Among the people arrested were those accused of using "abusive language", public drinkers and touts.

Tsvangirai said: "It defies logic that the Zanu PF government can arrest legally licensed flea market operators when they know that they have destroyed the economy to an extent that 80 percent of the population is not formally employed.

"The majority of Zimbabweans depend on informal trade to feed, clothe and educate their families. Despite the creation of a ministry responsible for informal traders, the government wants to force hard-working and honest citizens to resort to criminal activities for survival."

He said the time had come for Zimbabweans to engage the "dictatorship" in a new struggle. "Each person must ask themselves what they have done each day for the struggle although we emphasise that this is not an armed struggle, but a social revolution."

He said the MDC's intelligence wing had informed him that flea markets were being cleared up to make way for Chinese traders.

"The country has been mortgaged to the Chinese. How can we violently remove Zimbabweans from our flea markets to make way for the Chinese?"

He said the Chinese would be handed the flea markets in appreciation of the free MA 60 plane which the government received from China.

Flea market operators interviewed by The Standard said they were puzzled why they were being been beaten up and evicted.

A stall holder who identified herself only as Joyce said when they asked police for an explanation of the evictions, their questions were met with further beatings.

"We have licences and we don't deal in foreign currency. If they want foreign currency they should ask Chinese traders where they are getting the foreign currency to bring in cheap goods which have flooded the markets."

Sikhala added: "The government's actions are a punitive act of vengeance against urban dwellers. By taking away their only source of livelihood, they want to starve them as a form of punishment because of the electoral outcome."

In Kuwadzana Extension, residents were left traumatised after all the tuck-shops in the area were demolished. There are no supermarkets in Kuwadzana Extension and this means residents have to travel long-distances in order to get basic groceries like sugar, bread and milk, if they are available.

By Friday morning, commuter bus drivers were instructed to drop off passengers on the outskirts of the Central Business District, forcing them to walk the rest of the way into town.

Yesterday residents of the capital were still battling to come to terms with the combined police and Harare city council blitz.

As they struggled to get transport to their homes, the shortages of basic commodities still awaited them. Fuel, electricity, grain, sugar, water, beer, medical drugs, foreign currency, cigarettes and matches remain in short supply.

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