{"id":5325,"date":"2019-01-09T16:40:44","date_gmt":"2019-01-09T08:40:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/10.0.5.12\/nnn\/?p=5325"},"modified":"2019-01-15T14:18:41","modified_gmt":"2019-01-15T06:18:41","slug":"5325","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=5325","title":{"rendered":"Protests erupt in Zimbabwe against 150% fuel price hike"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/v3\/read.php?id=NDUyNDk4#\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">0<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>HARARE, Jan 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; People took to the streets in Zimbabwe after President Emmerson Mnangagwa announced a 150 percent fuel price hike in a country where unemployment is 80 percent.&nbsp;<br><br>Protesters barricaded roads and burned tires in a suburb of capital Harare Monday, two days after Mnangagwa announced a massive fuel price hike in an effort to stem a deepening economic crisis.<br><br>Cash shortages have plunged Zimbabwe&#8217;s economy into disarray, threatening widespread social unrest and undermining Mnangagwa&#8217;s efforts to win back foreign investors sidelined under his predecessor Robert Mugabe.<br><br>Police fired teargas to disperse youths protesting outside the high court in Zimbabwe&#8217;s second city of Bulawayo, according to video footage from the Centre for Innovation and Technology, a local news service. Riot police in trucks patrolled downtown Harare while some shops remained closed.<br><br>Mnangagwa&#8217;s announcement of a 150 percent increase in fuel prices was greeted with shock in Zimbabwe where unemployment is over 80 percent. The price was increased from US$1.34 for a liter of petrol to US$3.31 with diesel surging to US$3.11 per liter.&nbsp;<br><br>The government sets fuel prices via the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Agency.<br><br>Residents of Epworth, 36 km south of the capital, protested after the main labor federation called for a three-day strike starting Monday in response to the price increase.<br><br>The protests came just after doctors ended a 40-day strike in the country without coming to any terms.<br><br>The Zimbabwean government issued a statement in response to the protests labeling them Western-sponsored acts.<br><br>&#8220;This brazenly unconstitutional plan which has sought financial support from some regime-change organisations based in America and Germany, among other countries, represents a serious threat to our consolidating democracy, to the rule of law in our country, and to the authority of government and the state,&#8221; the statement said. &#8212; NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>0 HARARE, Jan 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; People took to the streets in Zimbabwe after President Emmerson Mnangagwa announced a 150 percent fuel price hike in a country where unemployment is 80 percent.&nbsp; Protesters barricaded roads and burned tires in a suburb of capital Harare Monday, two days after Mnangagwa announced a massive fuel price hike [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[288],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5325"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5325\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}