Govt accuses France, US of protest plot

Zimbabwe on Sunday accused the US and French embassies of backing street protests and a national work boycott which closed businesses and paralysed the public transport system last week. The strike action was the latest in a series of protests over growing economic hardship blamed on the policies of 92-year-old President Robert Mugabe, who has […]

Zimbabwe on Sunday accused the US and French embassies of backing street protests and a national work boycott which closed businesses and paralysed the public transport system last week.
The strike action was the latest in a series of protests over growing economic hardship blamed on the policies of 92-year-old President Robert Mugabe, who has been in power for 36 years.
“We have gathered from our intelligence that there was involvement of western embassies in all these disturbances that have been taking place,” the state-owned Sunday Mail newspaper quoted home affairs minister Ignatius Chombo as saying.
The newspaper reported that US ambassador Harry Thomas had in May met one of the organisers of last week’s work boycott, the cleric Evan Mawarire, and that French ambassador Laurent Delahousse was “believed to have met Mawarire several times”.
Delahousse denied ever meeting Mawarire and dismissed as “ridiculous” claims he backed the protests.