By Paul Nyathi|Heavily armed soldiers have descended the streets of Bulawayo as protestors against President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s economic turmoil and the recent hike in the price of fuel by President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

The armed soldiers were spotted patrolling Bulawayo’s streets as the situation got very tense in the city.

It is yet to be established if the soldiers have been deployed onto the streets to restore order especially in light of what happened on August 1, 2008, when the military shot and killed at least 6 protestors and passers-by in Harare.

Earlier on the police were being pelted by stones in Bulawayo.

Bulawayo has had the more intense of demonstrations today as protesters in Harare appeared subdued by riot police.

Commuters were stranded in Zimbabwe’s two main cities on Monday as angry protesters reacting to the weekend more than doubling of fuel prices, burned tyres and used rocks to barricade roads and blocked buses from carrying passengers.

Residents in Epworth, a poor suburb east of the capital Harare, on Monday woke up to find boulders blocking roads leading to the city centre.

“It’s tense since early morning,” Nhamo Tembo, a resident told media.

“Roads are blocked with huge stones and there are angry people preventing commuter buses from carrying passengers. People are just stranded,” he said.

In the city of Bulawayo, demonstrators attacked minibuses heading to the city centre and used burning tyres and stones to block the main routes into town while some schools were turning away pupils fearing for their safety.

In Mabvuku highdensity suburbs in Harare, protesters turned rowdy and looted a grocery supermarket Choppies.

More to follow…