Pastor charged with inciting public violence following a strike

HARARE, Tuesday

Zimbabwean pastor Evan Mawarire, one of the organisers of recent protests against President Robert Mugabe’s decades-long rule, was arrested on Tuesday and charged with inciting public violence, his lawyer said.

A national “shutdown” protest last week led to the closure of many businesses, shops and schools, with public transport and some government departments and courts also ceasing to function.

The strike on Wednesday followed days of sporadic protests triggered by a sudden outbreak of demonstrations on the outskirts of Harare over police accused of using roadblocks to extort cash from motorists.

Further shutdowns are scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday in a surge of public anger over the country’s worsening economic crisis and opposition to the authoritarian regime of Mugabe, 92.

Banks have run short of cash, government salaries have been delayed and many basic imports banned at a time when the country has also suffered a severe drought that has left millions hungry.

“(Mawarire) has been charged with inciting public violence,” his lawyer Harrison Nkomo told AFP after the Baptist pastor reported to a police station in central Harare, where he had been summoned for questioning.

Mawarire shot to instant fame after he posted a video of himself on Facebook in April venting against state corruption and the government’s failure to provide basic services.

The video, in which Mawarire was wearing a Zimbabwean flag, spawned the ThisFlag hashtag movement, which has become a unifying symbol for the protests.

The demonstrations have revealed the long-bubbling frustration normally kept under strict control by Mugabe’s ruthless security forces in a country where 90 per cent of the population are not in formal jobs.

Footage on the Internet has shown police beating protesters with sticks.

“No violence, citizens,” Mawarire said in a video message before his arrest.

“Whenever we protest, no violence, so we are pushing ahead Wednesday 13 and Thursday 14 July. We are pushing for a 'stay-away’ (shutdown) because there is nothing else we can do for the government to listen to us.”