Zimbabwe protests show people have power

ZIMBABWEAN President Robert Mugabe is well known both at home and abroad for crushing dissent. He has mastered the use of the police, the army and the intelligence service to keep him in office for close to 36 years now.

"I may be 90 years old, but you see this fist of mine? It's 90 tonnes, and I will not hesitate to use it," he once said, warning opposition parties against violent demonstrations in 2014.

He has picked up fights with global political heavyweights, such as US presidents George Bush and Barack Obama, the former British prime minister Tony Blair and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon.

This aura of invincibility that Mugabe has built around himself, partly explains why he has stayed in power for 36 years. He is feared at home and revered abroad.

To most of his fellow Africans, Mugabe epitomises the proverbial village drunk - one who says what all those around him would love to say but are not brave enough.

It therefore came as a surprise when a national shutdown - organised on Wednesday on social media by ordinary citizens - brought the country to a standstill.

Zimbabwe's economic meltdown, that has seen joblessness rising to more than 90%, seems to have achieved what a lot of opposition leaders and the international community are struggling to do - render the country ungovernable in the push for change.

Zimbabweans seem fed up and are at a point they cannot take it on the chin anymore. Police roadblocks where bribes are solicited are frequent, the health delivery system has collapsed, service delivery in urban areas is plummeting, corruption in the corridors of government is endemic and the education sector is but a shadow of its former glory.

The IMF estimates that the country's economy will grow 1% this year. Tax revenues are falling and the supply of money is tightening.

Depositors are failing to access their savings from banks, with long queues becoming the norm.

Mugabe's government itself is struggling to keep up with payments of salaries for its 550,000 public servants. It has been forced to adopt a system of staggering salary payments for its workers.

Access to lines of credit is virtually impossible, with the little credit available costing so much. Mugabe has approached the western governments, which he chides at every given opportunity, for aid. Many are unwilling to bail him out. Besides, his government already owes more than $10bn to western multilateral institutions. A majority of them are scared of the country's indigenisation laws and the occasional seizures of investments.

There is a crisis of leadership. Mugabe's old age and rumours of his ill-health have also sparked a rush in his Zanu-PF party to succeed him. His henchmen see this mess as an opportunity to loot for the last time, and protect their ill-gotten gains.

The stayaway has yielded the results many were struggling to achieve. The government swiftly moved last week to pay salaries for teachers and nurses. An import ban was also relaxed. Now travellers are allowed to bring in goods within a limited quantity, once a month.

"This action has clearly demonstrated the potency of people power," opposition leader Welshman Ncube said. Publisher Trevor Ncube summed up the day's events: "We faced the bully and told him what we think."

Home Affairs Minister Ignatius Chombo warned that police would "deal" with all acts of lawlessness.

Social media are also set to be closely monitored as the citizens movement mobilises on WhatsApp, Twitter and Facebook platforms.

In short, the people's victory could be met with more reprisals and heavy-handedness by the government.

But now that the people have tasted power, will they let go of it? Maybe it is time Mugabe realises that boxers often retire way before 90.