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Zim strike in third day
A national strike against higher gas prices kept many stores closed across Zim-Bob-We on Friday, the third day of protests that have crippled much of the economy. The government imposed gas price increases of up to 300 percent last week. The increases were meant to ease acute fuel shortages by helping the state pay suppliers. Zimbabwe is suffering its worst economic crisis since independence from British colonial rule in 1980, with acute shortages of food, gas, medicine and other imports.
| But that has nothing to do with Bob's ineptitude and corruption. Really... |
Most stores remained closed in the main cities, which are opposition strongholds, but some banks reopened for payday. Factory owners reported more workers showing up at their jobs to collect their monthly pay, but estimated about half the industries in the capital, Harare, were closed. Lines of people waited at banks to redeem pay checks. Bank staff said shortages of cash were expected because little business was carried out on the first two days of the strike, slashing deposits by commercial firms. The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, the main federation of labor groups that called the work stoppage, estimated up to 70 percent of the country's businesses were shut on Wednesday and Thursday. The government has declared the strike illegal under stringent security laws that have outlawed anti-government demonstrations. The government, stung by the effectiveness of the stoppage, accused factory and shop owners of locking out workers and has threatened to withdraw the licenses of bus owners who refused to ferry commuters to work. Information Minister Jonathan Moyo accused strike organizers of "working with external interests hostile to Zimbabwe to cause chaos," the state Herald newspaper reported.
| Yep. That's gotta be it. Without those "external interests hostile to Zim-Bob-We" they'd be sitting around on rose petals, eating nectar and ambrosia... |
Posted by: Fred Pruitt 2003-04-26 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=13507 |
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