British Foreign Secretary tells Mnangagwa: “Don’t turn back the clock”

British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt today asked President Emmerson Mnangagwa not to turn back the clock to go back to the repressive days of his predecessor Robert Mugabe.

He said this in the wake of the crackdown on people who took to the streets last week protesting against the 150 percent increase in the price of fuel.

“Please don’t turn back the clock @edmnangagwa. People should have right to peaceful protest without fear of violence,” Hunt tweeted.

“Full access to internet must be restored, security forces must stop use of disproportionate force & all cases of alleged human rights abuses investigated.”

Last week’s protests turned violent with people burning tyres and preventing those who wanted to go to work from doing so. While these were supposed to be peaceful protests, there was massive looting especially in the Western suburbs of Bulawayo.

The government deployed soldiers to bring back sanity but also shut down the internet blocking out communication as most of the leaders were using the social media to post their messages.

Although the government allowed the internet back at the weekend, it continued to bar social media which only came back this evening after the High Court ruled that the shutdown was illegal as the Minister of State Security, Owen Ncube, who ordered the shutdown had no power to do so.

The court said only the President had the power to order the shutdown.

While there has been outrage over the shutdown of the internet and the crackdown on protesters, very little attention is being paid to the business people who lost their livelihoods when their businesses were run down yet some of them lost everything and will never recover.

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