Police fought running battles yesterday with supporters of a general strike called to protest a government campaign against shack dwellers and street traders, the strike organiser said.

Lovemore Madhuku, the head of the group that called the strike, said many people were beaten by anti-riot police who also fired tear gas at protesters and shot bullets over their heads in the Chitungwiza township south of Harare.

The violence erupted, he said, after police set up roadblocks on all routes in and out of Chitungwiza and other crowded southern townships, and made people get out of vehicles so they could be searched.

“Police had to fire in the air,” said Madhuku, who said he did not know how many people had been injured or arrested. Police could not be reached for comment.

Most businesses remained open with skeleton staffs yesterday, the second day of the two-day stay-away. The level of traffic was again markedly down compared to a normal working day. Police have the power to seize the goods and trading license of any business that fails to open.

State radio broke its prolonged silence on the strike and described it as “a failed attempt to sabotage Zimbabwe’s economic turnaround.”

At a lunch for ruling party legislators, President Robert Mugabe castigated the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change for “sacrificing the interests of the people of Zimbabwe in a bid to serve their colonial masters,” the station reported.

Economists said five years of unprecedented economic decline in Zimbabwe have left only about 800,000 of its 12 million people with jobs in the formal sector, making it difficult to gauge the effect of the strike.

Madhuku claimed it had received at least 50% support in most towns and cities despite repeated police threats to “deal ruthlessly” with anyone who supported the strike. He conceded, however, the strike failed to achieve the economic paralysis intended.

Madhuku blamed widespread intimidation and difficulties communicating with the public in a country where most media is state controlled.

Madhuku is the chairman of the newly formed Broad Alliance, a group that links trade unions, civic and church groups with the opposition MDC party.

The strike was called to protest Operation Murambatsvina, or “Drive out Trash,” a government crackdown in which police have torched or demolished thousands of shacks of the urban poor and arrested at least 30,000 street vendors.