Zimbabwean soldiers at the weekend severely beat up fish vendors in the working class suburb of Kuwadzana in Harare for displaying baskets of fish to President Robert Mugabe’s passing motorcade. The soldiers, who were armed with rifles and truncheons, accused the hapless vendors of insulting Mugabe after they displayed their “smelling fish” to the President.It was not clear if the vendors had moved towards the passing motorcade in a bid to beg Mugabe, who was travelling fronm his rural home in Zvimba, to buy some of their fish. Under Zimbabwe‘s tough security laws it is an offence to make offensive gestures or swear at Mugabe‘s motorcade. The law says that a person „shall not make any gesture or statement within the hearing of the state motorcade with the intention of insulting any person traveling with an escort or any member of the escort“.
Vendors said that all hell broke loose when some soldiers returned to the scene, about 20 minutes after Mugabe passed through the suburb. „First they asked why we were showing off our fish to Mugabe and then they started beating us randomly. The soldiers said we were embarrassing the government by openly showing off our poverty to the President“.