Commuters got stranded in Zimbabwe’s two main cities on Monday as angry protesters, reacting to the weekend’s more than double increase in fuel prices, burned tyres and used rocks to barricade roads and blocked buses from carrying passengers.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Saturday announced an almost 150% rise in the price of petrol and diesel in a move to improve supplies as the country struggles with its worst fuel shortages in a decade.
Residents in Epworth that is a poor suburb in the east of the capital Harare, on Monday woke up to find boulders blocking roads leading to the city centre.
“It’s tense since early morning,” Nhamo Tembo, a resident told AFP.
“Roads are blocked with huge stones and there are angry people preventing commuter buses from carrying passengers. People are just stranded,” he said.
In the city of Bulawayo, demonstrators attacked minibuses heading to the city centre and used burning tyres and stones to block the main routes into town while some schools were turning away pupils fearing for their safety.
“We want Mnangagwa to know our displeasure in his failure,” said an angry Mthandazo Moyo, aged 22.
“Mugabe was evil but he listened,” he added, referring to former autocratic and long-time ruler Robert Mugabe who was ousted in November 2017.
After having gone through years of international isolation, Zimbabwe’s economy has been at its lowest for more than a decade with cash shortages, high unemployment and recently a scarcity of staples such as bread and cooking oil.
In a television address on Saturday, the Zimbabwean president said prices of petrol and diesel would more than double to tackle a shortfall caused by increased fuel usage and “rampant” illegal trading.
Petrol prices rose from $1.24 a litre to $3.31 with diesel up from $1.36 a litre to $3.11 starting Sunday.
The main labour alliance, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) said the government had shown a clear lack of empathy for the already overburdened poor.
Opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Nelson Chamisa said: “We have a national crisis which is descending into a humanitarian crisis”.
