Zimbabwe

General strike fails

Article published on the 2008-04-15 Latest update 2008-04-15 13:59 TU

MDC Secretary-General Tendai Biti
Photo: Reuters

Despite calls for a general strike from the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), reports from Harare say that most shops and businesses were open in the Zimbabwean capital today. The call was yet another attempt to have last month's presidential election results released, after the High Court on Monday refused an MDC bid to have them made public.

The MDC had called for workers to refuse to work indefinitely following yesterday's judgement. The party's secretary general, Tendai Biti, had called for a stay at home movement, rather than demonstrations on the streets, in order to avoid confrontations with security forces.

Police and army reinforcements had been deployed but reports from Zimbabwe today say that the strike has been a failure, with most people choosing to ignore the call.

The MDC claimed, however, that the strike had been a success.

"Those [shops] that opened did so under duress, under threats to have their licences withdrawn by the state and the staffing levels there are very thin. Most people did not turn up for work," said chief spokesperson Nelson Chamisa.

The opposition says that a second party member has been murdered. Temba Muronde was beaten to death in the northeatern Mudzi district, known as a stronghold of President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF. Local police say they don't believe the killing is political.

It follows the murder of an MDC election agent by Zanu-PF supporters on Saturday night.