News Africa Extended

News Africa Extended

#ThisFlag pastor seeks peaceful uprising

Posted: 28 Jul 2016 07:14 PM PDT

Zimbabwean social-media activist Evan Mawarire urges his compatriots to change Harare’s future.

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Johannesburg - The Zimbabwe pastor who launched a social media campaign criticising the government and then left the country for his safety is calling for a massive, but peaceful, uprising.

Evan Mawarire told a cheering crowd at a South African university on Thursday that Zimbabwe once was promising, but had been reduced to “horror and unimaginable disappointment”.

Frustration has been growing in the southern African country amid a collapsing economy and allegations of corruption.

People across the country earlier this month staged the largest anti-government strike in nearly a decade.

President Robert Mugabe, the world's oldest head of state at age 92, says people who aren't happy should leave the country.

Mawarire says Zimbabwe's government “cannot deal with people that are genuinely peaceful”, and he calls on citizens to rewrite the country's future.

ANA-AP

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Zimbabwe police detain veterans’ spokesman

Posted: 28 Jul 2016 04:10 AM PDT

Zimbabwe police have detained the spokesman of the veterans association that turned on President Mugabe last week.

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Harare - Zimbabwe police have detained the spokesman of the veterans association that turned on President Robert Mugabe last week and called him dictatorial, raising concerns that a crackdown on what had been the president's most loyal supporters has begun.

Douglas Mahiya's detention comes a day after the 92-year-old Mugabe vowed “severe” punishment for the authors of the harshly worded statement by the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association.

Mahiya was detained on Wednesday night, police spokeswoman Charity Charamba said Thursday.

The veterans have been Mugabe's core loyalists since the southern African country's 1970s liberation war against white rule, often using violence to crush the opposition.

Frustration is growing in Zimbabwe over its rapidly deteriorating economy and alleged corruption, which the veterans' statement blamed on “bankrupt leadership”.

“This rot needs to be uprooted, and right now,” they said.

The association, whose members are in their 60s and older, also announced it would no longer support Mugabe's political campaigns, accusing him of abandoning the veterans for the youth league of the ruling ZANU-PF party.

The 92-year-old Mugabe told thousands of supporters on Wednesday that Western countries had infiltrated the veterans association. The president also demanded new leaders for the group.

Despite growing criticism that included nationwide protests organised via social media earlier this month, Mugabe has repeatedly said he plans to run again in 2018 and rule until he dies.

The world's oldest head of state has been in power for 36 years, and this month he told critics to leave Zimbabwe if they are unhappy with conditions at home.

AP

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