Zimbabwe is sliding into violent political meltdown as its dire economy comes off the rails

Zimbabwe is sliding into a violent meltdown and it’s expected to worsen, unless there are some serious interventions.

Days of mass protests have been characterized by violence, looting and heavy-handedness by the police and army. It has led to the deaths and injury of many people, largely in Harare and Bulawayo’s high-density areas. According to the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, at least 12 people have been killed and thousands injured.

In addition to placing many urban areas under military siege, the government has also shut down social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Twitter and Facebook. These are viewed as the avenue through which the opposition and other civil society bodies have been communicating messages of “anarchy”. The internet has been shut down twice on separate occasions.

The deadly violence was triggered by president Emmerson Mnangagwa’s announcement of steep fuel price hikes on Saturday Jan.9 . Made in the dead of night, the announcement proved to be the straw that broke the camel’s back for a largely peaceful, if not somewhat passive, populace that has borne the brunt of two decades of economic meltdown.

Mnangagwa’s regime increased the prices of fuel by a staggering 150%, making Zimbabwe’s fuel among the most expensive in the world. The sharp fuel hike prompted the country’s largest trade union body, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, and other civil society bodies such as the Crisis Coalition, to call for a three-day mass stay away from work.