Zimbabweans see little change after leadership shift

WHEN the late Robert Mugabe was ousted as President of Zimbabwe in a coup in November 2017, many in the country hoped for an end to the repression and mismanagement that had characterised his 37 years in office.

But when protesters tried to gather on Friday in the capital, Harare, the security services reacted in a manner reminiscent of the Mugabe era.

They shut down most of the city, arrested several government critics and forced more than a dozen others into hiding — highlighting how the country has, in the eyes of the opposition, slipped from bad to worse under Mugabe’s successor, Emmerson Mnangagwa.

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