Zimbabwe protesters clash with police over ‘bond notes’

Protesters oppose introduction of bond notes

Police in Zimbabwe have clashed with protesters opposed to the new bond notes, issued on Monday by the central bank, to ease cash shortages, the AFP news agency reports.

The bond notes are equivalent to the US dollar.

About 100 activists from the opposition party, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), and the pressure group Tajamuka were chanting anti-government songs when police moved in to disperse them with tear gas and water cannon, AFP reports.

Anti-riot police officers sit in the back of a police vehicle as they patrol during a demonstration by opposition parties against the introduction of bond notes as a currency in Harare, on November 30, 2016
People run away from Zimbabwe police officers using a water canon during a demonstration by opposition parties against the introduction of bond notes as a currency in Harare, on November 30, 2016

Protesters carried placards which said, “Bond notes Toilet tissue”, while others denounced President Robert Mugabe, 92, as a “limping donkey”.

“We are not going to embrace bond notes,” Hardlife Mudzingwa, a spokesman for Tajamuka, told AFP.

Many cash machines now dispense half US dollars and half bond notes, the report adds.

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