Neither the army, which has anchored President Robert Mugabe's
36-year rule, nor the police force have been paid on time since June.
Zimbabwe's army
commander said on Friday that his soldiers will deal with threats from
activists using social media to mobilise anti-government protests, the
first time the military has commented on the demonstrations.
Lieutenant-General Valerio Sibanda,
the Zimbabwe National Army Commander, said in an interview with
state-owned The Herald newspaper that social media activism was cyber
warfare that the army would deal with.
Neither the army, which has anchored President Robert Mugabe's 36-year rule, nor the police force have been paid on time since June.
Zimbabwe
has seen several protests in recent months with unemployment above 80
percent, dollar shortages worsening as commodity prices slumped and as
the region suffers its worst drought for 25 years.
The
largest anti-government protest in Zimbabwe in the last decade was
organised on social media last month, when a strike by #ThisFlag
movement shut down businesses.
"As an army, at
our institutions of training, we are already training our officers to
be able to deal with this new threat we call cyber warfare where weapons
- not necessarily guns but basically information and communication
technology - are being used to mobilise people to do the wrong things," Sibanda said.
"The major task we are undertaking now is that of training and preparing the army for whatever eventuality."
Generals
in Zimbabwe's military are veterans of the 1970s independence war, and
while they publicly support Mugabe and his ZANU-PF, they have divided
loyalties over who should succeed Mugabe, who is also under pressure
from war veteran allies.
National leaders of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA)
last month said Mugabe was responsible for Zimbabwe's economic
problems, in a stinging rebuke that laid bare cracks within the ruling
ZANU-PF party.
Mugabe has responded by arresting
and firing war veterans leaders from ZANU-PF, but his plan to use a
splinter group to elect a new ZNLWVA executive was blocked by the High
Court.
A court ruling seen by Reuters on Friday
said the splinter war veterans group backing the 92-year-old president
should not interfere with the ZNLWVA's operations, but he is expected to
persist in his bid to push out his former allies.
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