Thousands of workers were stranded as they failed to get transport back home. They could be seen walking home on foot by the early evening hours on roads leading to Highfield, Mufakose, Chitungwiza, and Mabvuku. Most commuter omnibuses were stranded in town, and only a few were still running their routes by night time. Many feared facing the rioters. There was a complete crash of the phone system, including cellular networks like NetOne, at late morning when the looting was occurring. The Posts and Telecommunications Corporation (PTC) said that there was a massive systems fault and managed to get the cellular system up in a few hours, but most groundlines were still out of order all the way into the night. People could not contact their relatives and friends and there was no central point where the concerned public could get information on what was happening and routes they should have avoided. A small non-Governmental paper, the Mirror, the independent paper for Masvingo province, reported on 23 January 1998 that a communications authority had pronounced it unbelievable that both land lines and cellphone networks developed faults at the same time. It is technically possible for the PTC to switch off, and this was a possibility as to what happened. Reports of violence continued in Mbare, Glen Norah, Highfield, and Mufakose (among others). But business was as usual in the more affluent, low density, northern suburbs of the city. Shopping centres like Sam Levy’s Village, Westgate, and Fife Ave remained opened and business was brisk. By late Monday night it was thought that the riots were confined to Harare alone. There were no disturbances reported from other cities and towns. Although, it was reported that some customers in the Nkulumane high density suburb of Bulawayo were stranded when shops at the city’s largest complex closed in panic after reports of violent consumer protests against price hikes in Harare. By lunch time most of the shops at the Z$70 million Nkulumane shopping complex had closed. A spokesman said that they had closed following a directive from the Old Mutual Pension Fund which owns the major shopping complex in Chitungwiza that was highly vandalised. Other shopping areas in Bulawayo remained calm. Press Reports HARARE Mbare Along Mazorodze Road, south-west of the city centre, rioters smashed windows and looted several retail outlets including Matlock Service Station and a Steers outlet. The petrol pumps were vandalised and two commuters omnibuses were stoned and had their windscreens smashed. The tires were removed and the vehicles were left balancing on rocks. Other vehicles in the area were also destroyed as rioters stoned them. The suburb, Mbare, itself was not accessible as youths blocked the roads leading into the area. They were joined by women who looted a food shop along Mazorodze Road. Buses from the rural areas were afraid to enter the area and dropped people 15km outside the city. In an area adjacent to Mbare, Southerton, a vehicle was overturned and a Lobels Bakery delivery van had windows smashed and the bread looted, as was a heavy truck carrying maize. Mazorodze Road was strewn with glass all the way from Manchester Road to the Kopje because of smashed windscreens. Mufakose A bottle store was raided but the police dispersed the crowd before it could be looted. Kuwadzana There were reports of riots and police in riot gear were dispatched to contain the situation. Glen View In Glen View, an Air Force helicopter was summoned to spray teargas as looters invaded the area’s shopping centre, Tichagarika, clearing out a dry cleaning shop and breaking into a Spar retail outlet. Residents said that the helicopter hovered in the air for more than three hours and