{"id":27825,"date":"2016-08-18T03:13:04","date_gmt":"2016-08-18T03:13:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/zimbabwe-police-break-up-anti-mugabe-protest\/"},"modified":"2016-08-18T03:13:48","modified_gmt":"2016-08-18T03:13:48","slug":"zimbabwe-police-break-up-anti-mugabe-protest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/zimbabwe-police-break-up-anti-mugabe-protest\/","title":{"rendered":"Zimbabwe police break up anti-Mugabe protest"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Several people have been beaten by police and at least one of the protesters sustained deep cuts on the head.}<\/p>\n

Zimbabwe police have fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse several hundred protesters calling on President Robert Mugabe to step down, a week after the longtime ruler warned that protests “don’t pay”.<\/p>\n

Some 200 people had gathered in central Harare on Wednesday, carrying flowers for peace and holding posters reading “Mugabe Must Go”, when baton-carrying police moved in.<\/p>\n

An AFP journalist reported seeing police officers beating protesters with batons before firing on the crowd with tear gas.<\/p>\n

Images taken by wire agencies and posted on social media also showed several people beaten by police.<\/p>\n

Reuters reported that at least one of the protesters sustained deep cuts to the head from a baton beating. <\/p>\n

Onlookers, pedestrians and motorists were caught up in the melee as anti-riot police moved in with their batons, maintaining a heavy presence in the city centre after the demonstration was dispersed.<\/p>\n

Protest leader Promise Mkwananzi said Wednesday’s demonstration was just a build-up to a “national shutdown” on August 31.<\/p>\n

“There will be no business as usual,” he told AFP. “Everybody must participate.”<\/p>\n

The demonstrators are also protesting against the plan of the country’s central bank to re-introduce local banknotes, which they fear could trigger inflation and wipe out people’s savings and pensions. <\/p>\n

Mugabe said last week that protests “don’t pay because usually they end up being violent protests”.<\/p>\n

Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe for 36 years.<\/p>\n

But as his cash-strapped government struggles to pay civil servants and the military on time, the veteran leader has faced mounting opposition fuelled by internet activism using the hashtag “ThisFlag” – a reference to wearing the national flag in public.<\/p>\n

Several war veterans’ leaders, long seen as loyal allies of Mugabe, have also been arrested after issuing a strongly-worded statement last month calling on the president to step down.<\/p>\n

Mugabe, 92, is increasingly fragile but has vowed to stand for re-election in 2018, though party seniors have long been jockeying to step into the role when he dies.<\/p>\n

Mugabe’s wife Grace and vice-president Emmerson Mnangagwa are among the possible successors to the world’s oldest president.<\/p>\n

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

{Several people have been beaten by police and at least one of the protesters sustained deep cuts on the head.} Zimbabwe police have fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse several hundred protesters calling on President Robert Mugabe to step down, a week after the longtime ruler warned that protests “don’t pay”. Some 200 […]<\/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":[2474],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-27825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-48","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\/27825","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=27825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27825\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27825"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=27825"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=27825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}