{"id":26711,"date":"2016-07-08T02:35:53","date_gmt":"2016-07-08T02:35:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/mugabe-won-t-step-down-says-his-party-as-protests\/"},"modified":"2016-07-08T02:35:48","modified_gmt":"2016-07-08T02:35:48","slug":"mugabe-won-t-step-down-says-his-party-as-protests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/mugabe-won-t-step-down-says-his-party-as-protests\/","title":{"rendered":"Mugabe won\u2019t step down, says his party as protests pile up pressure"},"content":{"rendered":"

{They said they were fed up with the 92 year-old ruler\u2019s failed policies.}<\/p>\n

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe will not resign as demanded by protestors who brought the country to a standstill Wednesday, the ruling party has said.<\/p>\n

The country was brought to a standstill in one of the biggest protests to rock Zimbabwe in the last decade after a social media movement known as #ThisFlag and civil society groups called for a job boycott to force President Mugabe to listen to their demands.<\/p>\n

They said they were fed up with the 92 year-old ruler\u2019s failed policies, corruption and a worsening economic crisis.<\/p>\n

However, the ruling Zanu PF accused Western embassies of coordinating the protests and vowed that State security agencies would clampdown on dissent.<\/p>\n

\u201cZanu PF is focused on what it wants to do and cannot be shaken by these activities,\u201d Zanu PF secretary for administration Ignatius Chombo told journalists in Harare.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are the ruling party and we will not accept anything short of law and order. In Harare, these demonstrations have been led by leaders of vendors\u2019 associations, some other shadowy groups calling themselves various names. And we know that they are being sponsored by Western embassies,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Mr Chombo claimed Western countries wanted to topple President Mugabe\u2019s government. \u201cThe regime change agenda that is being pursued by the West will come to naught,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The organisers of Wednesday\u2019s stay-away dubbed #ShutDownZimbabwe 2016 said they would stage another protest next week if the government does not address their demands.<\/p>\n

President Mugabe, in power since 1980, has in the past few months been facing growing protests against his rule as the economic crisis that has crippled the country continues to intensify.<\/p>\n

In April, former Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, organised one of the biggest marches in the last decade in the capital Harare against the veteran ruler, demanding that he steps down.<\/p>\n

Mr Tsvangirai\u2019s Movement for Democratic Change party has since held two more marches against President Mugabe in the cities of Bulawayo and Mutare.<\/p>\n

Civil society groups have also been staging daily protests against the government demanding an end to the economic crisis and human rights violations.<\/p>\n

FORGOING WORK<\/p>\n

Zanu PF has already endorsed President Mugabe to stand for yet another term in the 2018 elections.<\/p>\n

Under Mugabe\u2019s authoritarian rule, protests and strikes have been rare in Zimbabwe despite about 90 per cent of the population being out of formal employment.<\/p>\n

The last similar protests took place in 1998 when riots erupted over the price of bread.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a sign of economic collapse which has left people with nothing more to sacrifice and nothing to lose,\u201d Mr Dumisani Nkomo, spokesman for the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition campaign group said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are heading towards a tipping point as a country, where citizens will express their pain by any means.\u201d<\/p>\n

There were few people on the streets of the usually bustling capital Harare after civil society organisations called the strike to pressure Mugabe to tackle economic woes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t go to work when the rest of the country is not going to work,\u201d said Sybert Marumo, who works for an electrical shop.<\/p>\n

\u201cLife is tough and we need to show the government that we have been stretched to the limit.\u201d Children were seen streaming home from school after teachers failed to turn up.<\/p>\n

In some suburbs of Harare, protesters burned tyres and blocked streets to prevent cars from heading into the city centre.<\/p>\n

The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) said police had arrested at least 20 people across the country.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{They said they were fed up with the 92 year-old ruler\u2019s failed policies.} Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe will not resign as demanded by protestors who brought the country to a standstill Wednesday, the ruling party has said. The country was brought to a standstill in one of the biggest protests to rock Zimbabwe in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[100],"byline":[2461],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-26711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-48","tag-africa","byline-daily-nation"],"bylines":[{"id":2461,"name":"Daily Nation","slug":"daily-nation","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2461,"name":"Daily Nation","slug":"daily-nation","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26711\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26711"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=26711"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=26711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}