HARARE – Internet activists and various unions have called for a May 9 shutdown against Zimbabwe’s deepening economic crisis under the reign of President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Activists are mobilizing under the hashtag #ShutDownZimbabwe, hoping workers and students will heed their call to bring the country to a standstill.
A list of demands filed by Pachedu, an election transparency advocacy group, includes demands to end ZUPCO’s public transport monopoly, cut college fees, channel funds to hospitals, raise salaries of the public sector and the payment of pensions and to curb the devaluation of the national currency.
“On Monday, the task is very simple; stay home! Let your voice speak in a peaceful way. Further action will be taken if the government does not act,” Pachedu said in a statement.
The Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU) has also joined the crusade calling for a shutdown in attempt to force Mnangagwa’s government to resolve the deepening crisis.
“To every citizen of Zimbabwe, every parent, worker, young and the old… the student fraternity is going to shut down every institution of higher and tertiary learning on Monday, May 9, 2022. Students are saying #FeesMustFall through a nationwide campus shutdown,” said ZINASU in a statement.
The looming shutdown will be another stern test for President Mnangagwa whose record of human rights abuses is in tatters owing to the use of unethical means to deal with critics.
- Editor/ additional report by ZimLive
