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Zim opposition faces test of strength
Mail & Guardian (SA)
September 11, 2006

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=283839&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/

Mass protests are planned across Zimbabwe on Wednesday, in the first test of strength among opponents of President Robert Mugabe since a bitter split in the ranks of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

Leaders of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) insist they are ready to defy tough security laws and government threats with a series of marches throughout the Southern African country.

"We are more than ready to go, whether the government likes it or not," ZCTU general secretary Wellington Chibebe, said.

"The fact that the government is jittery to the extent of marshalling soldiers and the police is a sign of victory for the workers."

The day of action, code-named Operation Tatambura (We are starving), is the first mass anti-government protest since the main opposition MDC split over leader Morgan Tsvangirai's decision to boycott senate polls last November.

Protests by the ZCTU, formerly led by Tsvangirai, threatened to bring Zimbabwe to its knees in the late 1990s as hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets.

However, the opposition's heyday has long since passed amid mutual recriminations and Tsvangirai himself has not endorsed Wednesday's protest.

A spokesperson for his faction of the MDC said that while it sympathised with the ZCTU, it was planning its own protests.

"We sympathise with the workers as we support all democratic efforts to realise a new Zimbabwe and a better life for all," faction spokesperson Nelson Chamisa said.

"We are part of the ZCTU but we are organising our own protests, which will involve more people."

Chibebe declined to give a projection on the expected size of the protest on Wednesday, saying only that "we are expecting a big turnout both from our members and our sympathisers".

The extent of the divisions in the opposition were highlighted earlier this year when lawmaker Trudy Stevenson, a member of an MDC splinter group, was badly beaten in an attack blamed on militant supporters of Tsvangirai.

Attempts at forging a united front against Mugabe, in power for the last 26 years, have been exacerbated by the security forces' determination to invoke the Public Order Act which prohibits political rallies without police approval.

Scores of activists who responded to a similar protest call by the ZCTU in November last year were intercepted by truncheon-wielding anti-riot police and detained at Harare's main police station.

State security minister Didymus Mutasa warned that the security forces were on high alert to break up Wednesday's marches.

"The various arms of the state responsible for security are ready for them," he told state media. "The action we are going to take depends on the kind of demonstrations they embark on."

Mugabe himself has vowed to crush opposition rallies, warning that anyone planning protests against his government would be "playing with fire".

Zimbabwe's economy has been heading downhill for the last six years, characterised by triple-digit inflation, high unemployment and chronic shortages of fuel, and other basics such as cooking oil and sugar.

At least 80% of the population is living below the poverty threshold.

The ZCTU is demanding minimum wages and salaries in line with the poverty threshold, income tax cuts, and easy access to antiretroviral drugs.

It is also calling for an end to the arbitrary arrests and beatings of street hawkers and self-employed citizens.

"Eighty percent of Zimbabweans are living in poverty because workers' take-home salaries cannot even take them home," said an advertisement in a local weekly, exhorting workers to join in the protests.

"Now is the time to say NO." -- Sapa-- AFP

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