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Harare Bureau
EVAN Mawarire of the shadowy #This Flag campaign has handed himself to the police who were looking for him for inciting violence following the abortive July 6 “shutdown Zimbabwe” campaign.

Sources close to investigations today said Mawarire, who was said to have been on the run since last week, surrendered himself to the police at around 9am in the company of his lawyers.

“He has been arrested on allegations of inciting violence and is likely to appear in court tomorrow (Wednesday). He came today with his lawyers at around 9am and has been on the run since last week,” a police source confirmed.

The much-hyped July 6 “shutdown Zimbabwe” which was engineered by a group of anti-Government malcontents with the aid of US and French embassies was a monumental failure, a headcount of civil servants who reported for duty, as well as shops and banks that were open, revealed.

Contrary to privately-owned press and Western propaganda that the stayaway was huge success which brought the country to its knees, instigators of the campaign led by Evan Mawarire of the #This Flag campaign only recorded success in Harare and, to a minimal extent, in Bulawayo.

A countrywide survey vindicates The Herald’s report on Thursday that the shutdown campaign was largely ignored by Zimbabweans as an estimated 73 percent of people clocked in for work.

Shadowy groups cunningly scheduled their stayaway/shutdown call to coincide with a strike action by civil servants protesting a delay in the payment of their June salaries.
The huge turnout of teachers on July 7 when Government met salary obligations was testimony to the fact that the job action had nothing to do with politics.

Doctors and nurses also reported for duty en masse after Government assured them that they would be paid on July 8 and not July 14 as initially advised. Mawarire was recently quoted in The Standard claiming to have survived an attempt to abduct him on Friday night.

He vowed to lead another “shutdown” this week.

United States Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Mr Harry Thomas and his French counterpart, Ambassador Laurent Delahousse, are accused of having a hand in last week’s disturbances in Harare and Bulawayo.

According to Government, the two were using social media to fuel civil disobedience and ultimately destabilise Zimbabwe. A group led by former MDC-T youth leader Promise Mkhwananzi – Tajamuka/Sesijikile – has been calling for civil disturbances through social media.