Zimbabwean police have arrested and charged a Pastor with subversion for urging citizens to rise up against the deteriorating economic situation in the country following reports of huge increases of prices of basic commodities and devaluation of the bond notes.
Picked up during a church service on Sunday, the security officials accused Pastor Evan Mawarire for a series of social media posts in which he said Robert Mugabe’s government had wrecked the economy.
“As we are here this morning, I’ve just been informed that the police are outside. It’s important for you as the church to know this. I’m told that the police are outside waiting for me. I’m not sure what the story is or what the situation is,” he said, as the church band played on.
“I need you to continue to pray for me, pray for yourselves, pray for our nation. Our country needs God. I am an innocent man who has not broken the law or done anything that is wrong.”
ThisFlag, the online movement the pastor launched in April 2016, confirmed his arrest in a tweet, drawing angry reaction online.
Mawarire has been at the heart of a protest movement against Mugabe’s 37-year rule. In 2016, he led a stay-at-home demonstration that resulted in the first of his now three arrests for what the state says are attempts to overthrow the government.
Press and social media reports, including Mawarire’s post, on shortages of basic goods and foreign exchange were meant to cause alarm in the country, said Ignatius Chombo, minister of home affairs, the ministry in charge of the police, said in a statement to Reuters.
Prices of imported products are also going up, which businesses blame on shortages of foreign exchange.
The minister of religion raised the ire of the Zimbabwean authorities a year ago when he called for a nationwide shutdown over the declining economic situation. According to VOA Zimbabwe, he made a similar move on Saturday when he went live on Facebook and urged people to stand up and fight against the worsening economic environment in the southern African nation.
Mugabe, 93, has held power since independence from Britain in 1980. He is under mounting pressure from angry Zimbabweans, as well as his war veterans allies, who last year rebuked him as a manipulative dictator and called for him to step down.
