Zimbabwe cities empty, security tight after protest call

Police were out in force and businesses and offices closed in key Zimbabwe cities after authorities warned against demonstrations called for Monday to demand that President Emmerson Mnangagwa leave power.

Security forces patrolled city centres after warning people to ignore a call by a faction of Mnangagwa's own ZANU-PF party to demonstrate against the president, who took power in a coup eight years ago.

A small group of people tried to assemble at President Robert Mugabe Square in the capital Harare but were dispersed by police, videos on social media showed.

"It was announced as a peaceful march but the police are already starting to hit people," one of the protesters at the scene told the CITE online media.

But "we are not going anywhere... I'm staying here, if I have to die here, for the sake of my children," she said in a video posted on social media.

The protests were called by a veteran of the ZANU-PF, in power since independence in 1980, following moves by a faction of the party to keep Mnangagwa, 82, in power beyond the end of his term in 2028.

"The task of removing Mnangagwa has already begun," Blessed Geza, who is in hiding and has been expelled from the ZANU-PF, said on social media last week.

The main road in the centre of Harare was deserted and some retailers, including car dealers, had removed items from shop windows, an AFP reporter said. Schools were closed and commuter taxis suspended operations.

"There are no people at all," a man told AFP in Harare on condition of anonymity. "They are scared because of stories flying around (about the protests)."

In the country's second city, Bulawayo, major retailers and offices were shuttered and only a few people were in the normally busy fresh produce market, an AFP reporter said. Police patrolled in vehicles and on horseback.

Mnangagwa and his government have been accused of corruption and mismanagement that has left the southern African country in economic crisis, while repression has weakened the political opposition.

Geza and his group of veterans of the war that led to independence in 1980 are pushing to replace Mnangagwa with his vice president, Constantino Chiwenga, a retired general who orchestrated the coup against Mugabe.