{Police in Zimbabwe have arrested several senior war veterans who called for President Robert Mugabe to step down.}<\/p>\n
Police in Zimbabwe arrested the leader of the country’s once powerful war veterans’ association, in a growing crackdown on critics of President Robert Mugabe after a series of rare protests.<\/p>\n
Victor Matemadanda, secretary general of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA), was taken away by police at a court hearing of another colleague facing charges of insulting the head of state.<\/p>\n
Detectives took Matemadanda from a group of independence war veterans, who had gathered outside the Harare court for the bail hearing of association spokesman Douglas Mahiya, the AFP news agency reported.<\/p>\n
His lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, said Matemadanda has been accused of “undermining Mugabe”.<\/p>\n
In a previous incident last week, he was arrested at his home in Gokwe, in northwestern Zimbabwe, but was released two days later.<\/p>\n
Separately, the Zimbabwean Lawyers for Human Rights association said the war veterans’ political commissar, Francis Nhando, was also arrested outside the court on Monday.<\/p>\n
Nhando last month declared that the relationship between Mugabe and the highly influential war veterans had “broken down.”<\/p>\n
“People are saying enough is enough,” said Al Jazeera’s Haru Mutasa, reporting from Harare.<\/p>\n
“They say they are no longer afraid. They have been told to come out on the 3rd of August and march in the city centre in defiance.”<\/p>\n
Mugabe, 92, who has ruled since 1980, has faced a groundswell of opposition in recent months as the country’s moribund economy collapses and the government struggles to pay its workforce.<\/p>\n
Previously loyal supporters of the president, the war veterans released a highly critical statement two weeks ago attacking Mugabe as “dictatorial” and accusing him of being unable to address Zimbabwe’s problems.<\/p>\n
“When we find out who the people were… the punishment will be severe,” Mugabe said, referring to unsigned authors of the war veterans’ statement.<\/p>\n
A new non-partisan opposition movement known as #ThisFlag has also galvanised anti-government sentiment in Zimbabwe, where security forces have crushed signs of dissent for decades. <\/p>\n
Scores of sympathisers and rights activists attended Mahiya’s court hearing on Monday, including former vice president Joice Mujuru, now the leader of a new opposition party.<\/p>\n
Police in anti-riot gear stood guard at the court entrance while war veterans sang songs protesting against Mahiya and Matemadanda’s arrest.<\/p>\n
Mahiya was granted $300 (268 euros) bail and released.<\/p>\n
The state did not want the spokesman for the war veterans released, saying he could “incite public violence”.
\nBut the court ruled against this.<\/p>\n
Last month, a one-day strike shut down offices, shops, schools and some government departments as people protested over an economic crisis that has delayed salaries for civil servants and the military.<\/p>\n
More than 90 percent of the population is not in formal employment after years of economic decline under Mugabe’s rule.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{Police in Zimbabwe have arrested several senior war veterans who called for President Robert Mugabe to step down.} Police in Zimbabwe arrested the leader of the country’s once powerful war veterans’ association, in a growing crackdown on critics of President Robert Mugabe after a series of rare protests. Victor Matemadanda, secretary general of the Zimbabwe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[2474],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-27378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-al-jazeera"],"bylines":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","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":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","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\/27378","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=27378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27378\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27378"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=27378"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=27378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}