Zimbabwe Police Bar Opposition Protests Planned for Friday

(Bloomberg) -- Police barred a protest planned by Zimbabwe’s main opposition party from taking place.

Law-enforcement officials are “on high alert” and would “conduct patrols, surveillance, stop and searches to ensure law and order is maintained in all areas of the country,” the police said in an emailed statement Thursday. Participation would contravene the Public Order and Security Act “and the law will take its course,” it said.

The largest opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, on Wednesday called for protests over the economic crisis in the southern African nation, which is grappling with fuel and electricity shortages.

The protest on Friday was supposed to take place in the capital, Harare. Similar demonstrations were planned in four main cities next week. The protests would be “indefinite,” Daniel Molokele, the party spokesperson told reporters Wednesday.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ray Ndlovu in Johannesburg at rndlovu1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Paul Richardson at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net, Ana Monteiro, Antony Sguazzin

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