By IPS Correspondents
BULAWAYO, Jun 11 2005 (IPS)

Another eventful week in Zimbabwe; a two-day stay-at-home strike achieved very limited success that was blamed on poor leadership and mobilisation.

But the organisers – civic groups and the main opposition – said they were pressing ahead with more protests, continuing from as early as next week.

Fliers, anonymous mobile phone text messages as well as the odd newspaper article, implored urban Zimbabweans to stay at home June 9-10.

But many went about their normal business, amid reports that businesses were threatened with unspecified action if they closed.

Among those in the main urban districts were bankers and civil servants disinclined to risk the penalties of ‘absenteeism’, shoppers hoping to stock up on increasingly scarce basic foodstuffs and motorists whiling away time in mile-long fuel queues.

However, Lovemore Madhuku, spokesman of what is known as a ‘broad alliance’ – a coalition of labour unions, students associations and political organisations – estimates that 50 percent heeded the boycott call, especially on the first day, in the two biggest cities of Harare and Bulawayo.

The point of what locally is called a ‘stayaway’, he says, was to send a message to the government that people were not happy with the way it was handling issues, particularly its ongoing clampdown of the informal sector.

Known as ‘Murambatsvina’, (Drive Out Rubbish) or ‘Restore Hope’, the clampdown has so far resulted in the death of two people. Over 200, 000 people are homeless. Some 30,000 street vendors have been detained.

‘’I don’t think this government can fool itself and say failure of the people to have a 100-percent response is a denunciation of the processes of the stayaway,” Madhuku argues.

But the government appeared unfazed, even though the opposition’s 41 legislators boycotted the opening of parliament as part of the week’s protest.

President Robert Mugabe, who likened the legislators to immature children, also rubbished swirling rumours that he was in a coma or dead.

Speculation of the 81-year-old leader’s health heightened due to his absence from the public eye after a local newspaper reported, almost two weeks ago, that he had been to see a prominent heart specialist in Harare.

However, even if the president’s health is now less doubtful, the economy’s is no longer disguisable. A plane belonging to the national airline made an emergency landing at Johannesburg International airport in neighbouring South Africa Wednesday, injuring five passengers.

Observers linked the mishap to Zimbabwe’s critical foreign exchange shortage which might have prevented ‘Air Zimbabwe’ from servicing or replacing spares within the required timeframe.

Zimbabwe’s economic crisis has deepened since 1999 when, facing its first electoral defeat since independence from Britain in 1980, the government hastily embarked on a ‘fast-track’ land-reform programme meant, ostensibly, to redress colonial imbalances.

A five-year military adventure in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) also took its toll on what was one of Africa’s strongest economies.

Three months ago the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) extended its parliamentary majority in the third successive general election rocked by allegations of rigging.

But what has stretched the public’s sense of outrage and galvanised latent rage is a three-week government operation meant to rid urban centres of unauthorised buildings and street vendors.

The clean-up has also targeted ‘criminal activity’ and the parralel market which the government blames for a shortage of fuel and foreign exchange.

Church and human rights groups, such as Amnesty International, have criticised the operation, particularly as it comes amid worsening economic hardships which include rampant unemployment.

However, many say the week’s mass action, the first such protest in about two years, was badly organised and lacked clear ownership among the organisers.

The last major protest in June 2003 was dubbed the ‘final push’. It resulted in MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai being charged for treason, while scores of other people were beaten by the police.

‘’Where I stay, we just saw some fliers the day before the event,” says a resident who gave his name as Farai. ”We didn’t know where they were coming from; you couldn’t tell if they were from any recognised organisation.”

Allegations of an uneasy relationship among the alliance members have also arisen. ”There does seem to be competition among the organisations,” says George Mkhwananzi, the advocacy chairman of the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), which is part of the coalition.

A further concern is that the civic society coalition is not broad enough. For instance, it excludes the militant ‘Women of Zimbabwe Arise’ (WOZA) which claims to have the ability to mobilise up to 500 women within two days.

The organisation is planning its own protest next Saturday ahead of World Refugee Day. WOZA has also mobilised exiled Zimbabweans in Britain and South Africa to gather and protest outside Zimbabwean embassies.

Since its formation in 2003 WOZA has staged numerous street protests. To date, none of its members have been convicted under Zimbabwe’s stringent public order legislation. Its strategy is to organise demonstrations around international events, like Valentine’s Day or International Women’s Day.

”We have not been part of a stayaway simply because the women of WOZA believe in peaceful, direct action,” says co-ordinator Jenni Williams.

The activist questions the effectiveness of a stayaway when 80 percent of the population has no jobs to stayaway from.

‘’The lessons of WOZA have taught us that if you want to put pressure on the regime you must mobilise people door to door, talking to people about the issues that are affecting them and proposing to them that one of the ways is peaceful resistance,”Williams says.

But Gorden Moyo, who heads the civic education group Bulawayo Agenda, says the fact that people responded without being organised, and with little information, proves that the protest was successful.

‘’I’m one of those people celebrating the success of this stayaway,” he says, likening the resolution of Zimbabwe’s crisis to a marathon. ”The regime in Zimbabwe is worse than apartheid, and how long did it take to get rid of apartheid?”

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