Popular Zimbabwean pastor Evan Mawarire, one of the organisers of the largest protests in years against President Robert Mugabe, was arrested yesterday and charged with inciting public violence, his lawyer said.
A national “shutdown” protest last week closed many businesses, shops and schools, with public transport and some government departments and courts also ceasing to function.
The one-day strike came after security forces used tear gas and water cannon to disperse violent protests outside Harare that erupted over police officers allegedly using road blocks to extort cash from motorists.
Further shutdowns are planned today and tomorrow in a surge of public anger over the country’s worsening economic crisis and opposition to the authoritarian regime of Mugabe, 92.
Banks have run short of cash, government salaries have been delayed and some imports banned even though the country has suffered a severe drought that has left millions hungry.
“(Mawarire) has been charged with inciting public violence,” his lawyer Harrison Nkomo said after the Baptist pastor reported to a police station in central Harare where he had been summoned for questioning.
“The police searched his house and office this morning.”
Mawarire, who had no previous record as an activist, shot to fame in April after he posted a video of himself on Facebook venting against state corruption and the government’s failure to provide basic services.
The video, in which Mawarire was wearing a Zimbabwean flag, spawned the ThisFlag hashtag movement which has become a rallying call for the protests.
The demonstrations have revealed the long-bubbling frustration normally kept under strict control by Mugabe’s ruthless security forces in a country where 90 percent of the population are not in 
formal jobs.
Footage on the Internet has shown police beating protesters with sticks.
“Whenever we protest: no violence. So we are pushing ahead Wednesday 13 and Thursday 14 July,” Mawarire said in a video message before his arrest.
“We are pushing for a ‘stay-away’ (shutdown) because there is nothing else we can do for the government to listen to us.”
Home Affairs Minister Ignatius Chombo, however, moved to prevent another shutdown.
“Let me warn instigators behind the intended protests that they will face the full wrath of the law,” he told reporters.
“I urge members of the public to desist from engaging in illegal protests.”
Mawarire may appear in court on Wednesday, his lawyer said.
Police were not immediately available to comment on Mawarire’s arrest.
Zimbabwe, which abandoned its own currency in favour of US dollars in 2009 to end hyperinflation, spends more than 80 percent of its revenue on state workers’ wages.
Mugabe has blamed the money shortage on sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by the US and European Union – though the restrictions only target a small number of individuals and companies close to the president.
“These are troubles for these days only,” Mugabe told ruling ZANU-PF party supporters on Friday.
“It will not continue like this because we do not want the doctors, nurses and teachers to go on strike.”
The ageing president still appears regularly in public walking unaided and delivers long, fiery speeches, but he has shown increasing signs of ill health.
He has vowed to stand again as president in elections due in 2018, and has named no successor.
“Efforts to bring about political change must eventually rely on formal political parties, which are currently disunited and ineffective,” said Charles Laurie of risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft.
“Zimbabwean voters may find themselves currently united in an effort to usher in the post-Mugabe era, however, a successful political transition will require clear, unifying leadership.”
Zimbabwe has suffered years of economic decline, allegedly rigged elections and mass emigration since Mugabe took power in 1980, when the country won independence from Britain.