One of the victims of the three-day stay-at-home protest is low-cost African airline Fastjet, which cancelled its remaining flights to and from Zimbabwe on Monday due to political unrest.
The six-year-old troubled airline at the risk of going under due to debts announced the cancellation in a statement on Twitter.
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) called for a three-day stay-at-home protest over the sharp drop in living standards caused by a dollar crunch that has sent prices soaring and caused shortages of fuel and drugs.
On Monday, protesters barricaded roads and burned tyres in Zimbabwe’s capital Harare, as anger over the worst economic crisis in a decade spilled onto the streets and piled pressure on President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who is currently on an official trip to Russia.
Several people were killed and some 200 arrested during Monday’s protests, which were triggered by President Mnangagwa’s decision to hike the price of fuel in an attempt to tackle the southern African country’s worst economic crisis in a decade.
There are reports in Zimbabwe of an internet shutdown affecting popular social media platforms of Facebook, Twitter and Whatsapp, as the government attempts to contain a national strike that affected banks, schools and businesses in the capital Harare and Bulawayo.
Zimbabwe, a landlocked country depends on road transportation for imports, so doubling of fuel prices has increased prices of all goods transported by road. It is for this reason that Bulawayo has been reduced to a ghost city as even people who don't own personal cars and rely on buses kept away.
