A GROUP of Tajamuka/Sesijikile activists held a mini-protest in Bulawayo on Thursday afternoon, using boulders to barricade the main road leading into the city centre along Stanley Square in Makokoba.
BY NQOBANI NDLOVU
The mini-protest, which lasted about 30 minutes, forced traffic using the route to divert from the one-way road that leads into the city centre.
The youths — singing anti-government songs and also burning tyres — were wearing Tajamuka/Sesijikile T-shirts inscribed “Mugabe Must Go”.
The youths said Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa should also take advantage of his presence in Bulawayo to address the Gukurahundi issue.
Mnangagwa was in Bulawayo where he was addressing stakeholders at a constitutional advocacy meeting on Thursday.
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The youths also forced the abrupt stoppage of a food distribution programme to the elderly by Zanu PF members, which was taking place at Stanley Hall, as those in charge apparently got scared of being caught in the protest.
Residents, passers-by and vendors watched from a distance as the youths went about expressing their anger against the ruling party, which they accused of running down the economy in the 36 years it has been in power.
They later disappeared into Makokoba high-density suburb before anti-riot police arrived.
Anti-riot police only found boulders and burning tyres, but their mere presence saw onlookers scurrying in all directions in fear of being caught in the melee.
Recently, unidentified people in Bulawayo defaced the Robert Mugabe Way road signs and replaced them with inscriptions written “Devolution Way”.
This was a protest against the way Mugabe’s government has allegedly ignored the implementation of devolution of power as enshrined in the new Constitution.