BY T.J. FIGUEROA
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -Food riots erupted in Zimbabwe January 19 - 21. Protests and clashes spread rapidly from the capital, Harare, to cities and towns in the central, southern, and eastern parts of the country. The Zimbabwe Independent reported that at least eight people were killed. Police and army units arrested 2,300 people. Many stores were emptied and burned.

The riots, together with a general strike in December, present the government of President Robert Mugabe with one of its most serious challenges since coming to power in 1980. In that year a growing nationalist insurgency brought down the racist regime in what was then Rhodesia and won independence from Britain.

The spontaneous protests, which began in the sprawling working-class districts south of Harare, were sparked by a 21 percent rise in the price of maize meal on January 19. The price of this staple food had already soared 36 percent in October, and another 24 percent in December. The costs of bread, flour, sugar, margarine, cooking oil, soap, and other staples have risen 30-40 percent in recent months.

These price rises, in turn, are an immediate result of the hammer blows dealt the Zimbabwean dollar in the wake of the currency turmoil that accelerated out of Asia last October. Since then the currency has lost about half its value. Today it takes about Z$20 to buy US$1.

Social conditions in Zimbabwe mirror those in much of sub- Saharan Africa. Despite a limited land reform earlier in Mugabe's tenure, about 4,500 white farmers own 70 percent of the country's best farmland. Unemployment in the landlocked nation is estimated as high as 50 percent. Interest rates are running at more than 30 percent. Forecasts for the country's chief exports - gold, base minerals, and tobacco - predict declining revenues.

The riots began January 19 when police teargassed and baton charged 1,000 demonstrators in central Harare. Running battles with the police erupted, and widespread break-ins began at stores in the city and townships.

The government rapidly ordered the army into the streets - with orders to shoot "looters" - when police proved inadequate to put down the revolt. Mugabe threatened to declare a state of emergency. Home Affairs Minister Dumiso Dabengwa warned that army troops "will not hesitate to shoot any troublemakers who are encouraging looting and destruction of property." The deployment of the army against protesters is unprecedented in post-independence Zimbabwe.

The army initiated house-to-house searches in Chitungwiza, Harare's largest township. More than 300 people were arrested there on January 21 alone. Meanwhile, air force helicopters bombarded the township with tear gas.

Working-class anger over the conduct of the police and army was swift, fueling the clashes. Youths fought running battles with the police in the streets. "They have no right to shoot people just because they are exercising their democratic rights," said one Harare street vendor.

As riots spread, Mugabe ordered maize milling companies to reverse the price increase. Commerce Minister Nathan Shamuyarira announced that the Grain Marketing Board "had been informed not to raise its prices for maize to millers." The milling companies claimed that they were simply raising their prices to pass on cost increases dictated by the government-run marketing board.

Some Zimbabwean officials blamed the conditions that led to the food riots on structural adjustment programs the government has adopted from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Alternately, government spokespeople claimed that "some white industrialists and farmers" had actually funded the riots. Business and non-state-owned media, meanwhile, castigated the Mugabe government for supposed mismanagement and planned land reforms, and bemoaned the return of "price controls." The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions denied responsibility for planning the actions.

Popular discontent also spilled onto the streets December 9, when a general strike called by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) shut down factories and commerce nationwide. It was the biggest strike since independence.

The trade union body called the action to protest a recent tax increase, which Mugabe said would go to pay for a Z$3 billion pension package to 50,000 veterans of the independence war. The government repealed the tax on the day of the strike.

The strike action drew solid national support. "It is the general discontent that is erupting," said ZCTU secretary- general Morgan Tsvangirai. Protests were peaceful except in Harare, where police sprayed workers with tear gas and carried out widespread beatings. As protesters retreated from the city center, groups of youths pelted the cops with stones and set up barricades. Mugabe was at the time delivering his "state of the nation" address to parliament, making no mention of the strike.

Two days later, eight thugs barged into the office of the ZCTU secretary-general and beat him up.  
 
 
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