{"id":24059,"date":"2020-06-08T10:38:21","date_gmt":"2020-06-08T08:38:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.com\/zimbabwe\/?p=24059"},"modified":"2020-06-08T10:38:21","modified_gmt":"2020-06-08T08:38:21","slug":"is-covid-19-the-perfect-cover-for-mnangagwa-to-crush-the-opposition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/is-covid-19-the-perfect-cover-for-mnangagwa-to-crush-the-opposition","title":{"rendered":"Is Covid-19 the perfect cover for Mnangagwa to crush the opposition?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa is using the cover of the Covid-19 restrictions to entrench his rule, analysts have warned amid a fresh crackdown against government critics.<\/p>\n<p>A fortnight ago, President Mnangagwa extended indefinitely a lockdown to control the spread of coronavirus that began on March 27, saying the country was still vulnerable to the pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>Critics said the extension was not backed by science and suggested the 77-year-old leader, who came into power through a coup in 2017, wanted to consolidate his power in the face of growing discontent over a failing economy.<\/p>\n<p>Authorities have in recent days stepped up the arrest of officials of the main opposition party MDC-Alliance over allegations of violating lockdown regulations by organising protests.<\/p>\n<p>Three MDC-Alliance female activists that were allegedly abducted and sexually abused by suspected state security agents were recently charged for violating the stay home orders while on their hospital beds. Two journalists that tried to interview the hospitalised activists were also charged.<\/p>\n<p>Police this week arrested two MDC youth alliance leaders over allegations that they organised last month\u2019s protests in Harare over food shortages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa is using the cover of the Covid-19 restrictions to entrench his rule, analysts have warned amid a fresh crackdown against government critics. A fortnight ago, President Mnangagwa extended indefinitely a lockdown to control the spread of coronavirus that began on March 27, saying the country was still vulnerable to the pandemic. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":24060,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1361,7],"tags":[1388,34,88],"class_list":{"0":"post-24059","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-coronavirus-in-zimbabwe","9":"category-files","10":"tag-covid-19","11":"tag-emmerson-mnangagwa","12":"tag-mdc"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.1 (Yoast SEO v24.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Is Covid-19 the perfect cover for Mnangagwa to crush the opposition? - zimbabwe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa is using the cover of the Covid-19 restrictions to entrench his rule, analysts have warned amid a fresh crackdown\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/is-covid-19-the-perfect-cover-for-mnangagwa-to-crush-the-opposition\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is Covid-19 the perfect cover for Mnangagwa to crush the opposition?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa is using the cover of the Covid-19 restrictions to entrench his rule, analysts have warned amid a fresh crackdown\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/is-covid-19-the-perfect-cover-for-mnangagwa-to-crush-the-opposition\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"zimbabwe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-06-08T08:38:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2020\/06\/protest.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/is-covid-19-the-perfect-cover-for-mnangagwa-to-crush-the-opposition\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/is-covid-19-the-perfect-cover-for-mnangagwa-to-crush-the-opposition\",\"name\":\"Is Covid-19 the perfect cover for Mnangagwa to crush the opposition? 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