Defiance spirit sweeping across Zimbabwe

The spirit of resistance sweeping across the country is threatening to knock President Robert Mugabe and his ruling Zanu PF off their perch, with fed-up Zimbabweans planning to mount two more massive demonstrations this week alone — beginning with a nationwide shutdown on Wednesday.

The announcement yesterday by radical pressure group Tajamuka/Sesijikile that it would organise another debilitating nationwide shutdown, follows hard on the heels of the vow at the weekend by the group of 13 opposition parties who operate under the banner of the National Electoral Reform Agenda (Nera) that they would not be cowed by worsening police brutality, and would mount another mega demo in Harare on Friday.

Both opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC and former Vice President Joice Mujuru's Zimbabwe People First (ZPF) are part of Nera and say they will support the Tajamuka/Sesijikile nationwide shutdown which will in the main call for Mugabe's resignation from power.

Last month, Tajamuka also played a prominent role in a massive stay-away which not only shut the country down, but was widely seen as the biggest general strike to have been mounted in the history of post-independent Zimbabwe. That mass action gave Mugabe an August 31 ultimatum to either relinquish power or face an uprising.

The daring pressure group told the Daily News on Sunday yesterday that it was appealing to students, civil servants, war veterans, police, religious groups, established businesses, the informal sector and even "progressive Zanu PF politicians to fully support the process of citizen liberation" through the planned shutdown.

In the same vein, it also condemned worsening police heavy-handedness in dealing with Zimbabweans protesting against Zanu PF's misrule.

"We condemn in the strongest terms the assault, arbitrary arrests and incarceration of citizens in the country.

"In light of these sad retrogressive and unlawful measures by the State, coupled by the fast approaching August 31, 2016 deadline that we gave, Tajamuka/Sesijikile announces the August 31 national shutdown as a footing for serious citizen actions against police brutality, restrictive import trade policies, bond notes, deteriorating service delivery, corruption, illicit financial flows, and too many police roadblocks," it said.

MDC secretary-general Douglas Mwonzora called on all MDC supporters and other "right-thinking" Zimbabweans to come out in full force in solidarity with Tajamuka/Sesijikile on Wednesday.

"We will support efforts by Tajamuka/Sesijikile on Wednesday and all other progressive forces that want to remove Mugabe from power. We are unfazed by Mugabe's hollow threats that are meant to intimidate us because his end is nigh," Mwonzora told the Daily News on Sunday yesterday.

Afghanistan-based political commentator Maxwell Saungweme said the shutdown and other protests could usher in a new political dispensation in the country, notwithstanding the government's iron-fisted response to the growing dissent by the populace.

"It is common for dictatorial regimes to oppose change by any means. But the history in Libya, Egypt and even our own liberation struggle tells us that nothing can stop an idea whose time has come.

"The courts are doing well by following the law and the Constitution and the regime is in denial. Change is here and the earlier they wake up and smell the coffee the better. Otherwise they will go the way many such regimes have gone," Saungweme said.

Nera convener Didymus Mutasa also threw his weight behind the Tajamuka/Sesijikile shutdown, saying he was not averse to working with them.

"As Nera, we welcome them in the fight against Mugabe even though I have not personally met them. We also support their own initiative in that regard because that is what we are all yearning for," he said.

This week's two planned protests actions come in the wake of a worrying tendency by the government to ignore court rulings, as was witnessed on Friday when police stopped a Nera march despite the High Court having barred Home Affairs minister Ignatius Chombo and all law enforcement agents from interfering, obstructing or stopping the demo to press for much-needed electoral reforms ahead of the eagerly anticipated 2018 national elections.

But Tajamuka vowed that notwithstanding the "thuggish tendencies" by authorities, it would bring to an end Mugabe's 36-year stay in power before the 2018 elections.

"We reiterate our position that 2018 is too far. Cross-borders cannot be subjects of  Statutory Instrument (SI) 64 of 2016 up to 2018. Transport operators cannot sustain corrupt road blocks up to 2018. Residents cannot endure shortage of potable water up to 2018.

"Students cannot endure exorbitant tuition fees up to 2018. Citizens cannot endure subjection to a failed health system up to 2018. Vendors and the general public cannot be bonded on worthless currency up to 2018. Citizens cannot watch illicit financial flows beyond the $15 billion stolen in Chiadzwa until 2018.

"Civil servants cannot endure unknown pay dates and non-payment of bonuses up to 2018. Human rights defenders cannot be subjected to police brutality up to 2018. Schoolchildren cannot be oppressed by a national pledge up to 2018.

"Local authorities cannot be subjected to a non-devolved State up to 2018, and all progressive Zimbabweans cannot up to 2018 be subjected to a president who has failed to superintend over the affairs of the State," it said.

The group added that the "reactionary attitude of the country's authorities, particularly their reluctance to respond to citizen demands" had spurred them into drastic action.

"On the day of the shutdown, let's use the opportunity to prepare for the Nera demonstration at Tajamuka Square (Freedom Square) on Friday September 2, 2016.

"We also want to implore the Tajamuka/Sesijikile campaign to assume the citizen responsibility to protect each other during times of empty threats by a small factional clique of Zanu PF youths who, after insulting veterans of the liberation struggle, believe that they can extend it to the broader masses," it said.