HARARE – Zimbabwe police on Wednesday arrested labour secretary general Wellington Chibebe and about 70 union members as they ruthlessly crushed nationwide worker protests to force the country’s central bank to scrap limits on the amount of cash people can withdraw from banks.

Chibebe, who is secretary general of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), was later released to allow him to attend a meeting on the cash crisis with central bank governor Gideon Gono on Friday.

“He has been released after the intervention of the governor,” said ZCTU president Lovemore Matombo confirming Chibebe’s release. “You imagine the depth of the crisis when a central bank governor intervenes for the release of an arrested person.”

ZCTU information officer Khumbulani Ndlovu told ZimOnline that police arrested “more than 70 people throughout the country; 35 in Gweru, six in Zvishavane and the rest in Harare” in a crackdown the main opposition MDC party immediately condemned as heavy handed and unjustified.

The Morgan Tsvangirai-led MDC said the government’s violent reaction to the protests raised questions about President Robert Mugabe and his ruling ZANU PF party’s commitment to a power-sharing agreement with the opposition.

Union leaders arrested in yesterday’s crackdown by the police included ZCTU deputy secretary general Japhet Moyo, Progressive Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe secretary general Raymond Majongwe, South African Broadcasting Corporation correspondent John Nyashanu and several members of the ZCTU general council.

“Police arrested Wellington Chibebe while he was addressing workers in Harare soon after holding a meeting with the Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Gideon Gono and Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga,” Ndlovu said.

The ZCTU secretary general had gone to hand a petition to the central bank chief outlining the workers’ grievances regarding cash shortages and the withdrawal limits that the RBZ has set.

“Gono and Matonga had assured Chibebe that the workers’ concerns would be looked into and had agreed that he could go and address workers but that is when he was arrested and taken to Harare Central police station,” Ndlovu said.

Police were not immediately available for comment.

As union leaders were arrested, more police wielding batons charged at workers attempting to march to the central bank offices in Harare and beat up the marchers five of whom had to receive treatment after they were severely injured.

Police also dispersed at least 100 protesting doctors and nurses who had marched to the Ministry of Health’s Kaguvi building head office in Harare. Health workers have been on a lengthy strike over low salaries, poor working conditions and to pressure the government to act to save the public health sector from total collapse.

In Bulawayo — the country’s second largest city — armed police raided the regional offices of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) around mid-morning accusing the ZLHR staff of harbouring some ZCTU members but left later after failing to locate any union members at the offices.

The raid on the offices of the ZLHR – which provides free legal aid to human rights defenders – came hours after the abduction of Jestinah Mukoko, a prominent human rights activist and director of Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP), which documents rights violations and politically motivated violence.

The MDC – which has refused to enter a unity government outlined under a September 15 power-sharing agreement unless it is given full control of the home affairs ministry that oversees the police – said police action was a sign that “ZANU PF remains the undemocratic party of terror and thuggery”.

The opposition said in a statement: “ZANU PF's actions on the ground undermine their commitment (to a power-sharing agreement) on paper. The practicalities on the ground basically show that the leopard has not changed its spots.

“In the new Zimbabwe that we envision, never again should a government violently clamp down on innocent people for expressing themselves. Never again will a police force be allowed to beat up citizens for demanding a daily withdrawal limit that will enable them to provide food and other basic service to their families.”

The power-sharing agreement between ZANU PF, MDC and a breakaway faction of the opposition guarantees basic rights of Zimbabweans such as the right to the freedom of expression, but rights which the opposition say Mugabe’s government continues to violate.

ZANU PF spokesman Nathna Shamuyarira was not immediately available to respond to charges by the MDC that the ruling party was not committed to the power-sharing agreement.

The RBZ, which is struggling to import special paper required to print banknotes, limits the amount of cash individuals and firms can withdraw from their banks per day as part of desperate measures to curb a shortage of cash.

State media reported this week that the central bank had increased cash withdrawal limits with individuals beginning Thursday now allowed to withdraw $100 million per week while companies can withdraw $150 million per week.

However, the new limits remain too low in a country suffering the world’s highest inflation of 231 million percent and where people have to pay several millions of dollars for simple purchases such as household groceries.

Hyperinflation and the shortage of banknotes are the most visible signs of a severe economic crisis blamed on Mugabe's policies and that is also seen in shortages of food and basic commodities.

The crisis-torn country is also reeling under a cholera outbreak that has killed nearly 600 Zimbabweans, forcing hundreds to cross the border into South Africa to seek treatment. – ZimOnline