Mnangagwa’s announcement of a 150 percent increase in fuel prices was greeted with shock in Zimbabwe where unemployment is over 80 percent. The government sets fuel prices via the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Agency.
Residents of Epworth, 22 miles south of the capital, protested after the main labour federation called for a three-day strike starting on Monday in response to the price increase.
“The main roads to town have been barricaded with rocks and there is no public transport carrying people,” Phibeon Machona, a 27-year-old Epworth resident said.
Police fired teargas to disperse youths protesting outside the high court in Zimbabwe‘s second city of Bulawayo, according to video footage from the Centre For Innovation & Technology, a local news service.
Riot police in trucks patrolled downtown Harare while some shops remained closed.
Early on Monday Mnangagwa set off on a five-nation tour which starts in Russia and ends at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Shops closed in downtown Harare as riot police patrolled the streets and a military helicopter flew over the capital.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Saturday night announced a rise in the price of petrol and diesel in a move he said would end fuel shortages.
“We have suffered enough,” author Philani Nyoni who was part of the protest in Bulawayo.
“The government is now aware that we are not happy with their stupid policies like the fuel price increase,” said Nyoni, calling on the president to return home to “sort out things”.
“We want Mnangagwa to know our displeasure in his failure,” said another Bulawayo protester, Mthandazo Moyo, 22.
“Mugabe was evil but he listened,” he added.
Residents in Epworth, a poor suburb east of the capital Harare, on Monday woke up to find boulders blocking roads and the protesters set ablaze a tent at a police post.
“It’s tense since early morning,” Nhamo Tembo, an Epworth resident said.
Zimbabwe’s economy has been in a slump for more than a decade, with cash shortages, high unemployment and recently a scarcity of staples such as bread and cooking oil.
Petrol prices rose from $1.24 a litre to $3.31 (2.89 euros), with diesel up from $1.36 a litre to $3.11 starting Sunday – one of the highest pump prices in the world.
The main labour alliance, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) has called for a three-day stay-at-home strike as it said the government had shown a clear lack of empathy for the already overburdened poor.
Government has accused the strike organisers of pushing a political “regime change” agenda and of “subversive political activities”.
“It has become obvious that there is deliberate plan to undermine and challenge the prevailing constitutional order,” said government spokesman Nick Mangwana in a statement late Sunday night.
He warned that government will “respond appropriately” against “all those who have been conspiring to subvert peace, law and order in the country”.