Zimbabwe’s president Emmerson Mnangagwa said he will seek economic support from Russia as his government deployed soldiers and shut down the Internet in a bid to muzzle nationwide protests against a shock rise in the price of petrol.
At least three people died in street violence across Zimbabwe on Monday after thousands took to the streets to demonstrate against a 150 percent hike in the price of fuel that Mr Mnangagwa insists is necessary to prevent a complete economic collapse.
Charity Charamba, a police spokeswoman, said a police officer was stoned to death by protesters in Zimbabwe’s second city of Bulawayo and that two other people had died during protests in Chitungwiza, south of Harare, and Kadoma, west of the capital.
Doctors for Human Rights, a local NGO, said five people died in the clashes.
While city centres were deserted and factories largely empty on Tuesday, police fired tear gas at protesters and looters in Bulawayo and suburbs of Harare.
Meanwhile, locals reported a loss of internet access in major population centres including Harare as authorities sought to block messenger services and social media apps like WhatsApp, Twitter, and Facebook.
Members of the Zimbabwe National Army were seen going from house to house dragging people from their homes and beating them up.
“We are being beaten up. Last night was terrible,” said mother-of-two Sheila Taizivei, who lives in Epworth, about 30 miles south of Harare.
“Soldiers came to my house last night looking for my husband. When I told them he was not here, they slapped me. I was lucky, my next door neighbour was there and he came and saved me, so they kicked him down and took him away.”
Mr Mnangagwa announced the shock rise in petrol prices in a televised address on Saturday in a bid to curb demand for fuel and preserve the country’s rapidly dwindling reserves of foreign currency.
Mr Mnangagwa, who is in Russia as part of a bid to drum up foreign investment in Zimbabwe, said the fuel was price hike was “necessary and still is.”
But the move was greeted with fury by many Zimbabweans disillusioned at his failure to deliver on promises to reverse the economic mismanagement of Robert Mugabe’s regime.