Rioters, who were mostly women and unemployed youths, threw up barricades on all major roads leading into the city centre. Police put up roadblocks around the city centre and barred commuter omnibuses entry into town. Workers either walked or caught lifts with passing cars. Some of the old emergency taxis made a slight comeback as they were able to negotiate side roads. This only worked in the morning, however, because by the afternoon rioters were forcing people out of their cars. Motorists were stoned and their cars burnt, while other vehicles were overturned if they failed to heed calls to turn back.

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.

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 teargas filtered into their homes, causing untold pain for their children who did not understand what was going on.

Mabvuku and Tafara
People gathered early in the morning at the main shopping centre in the Mabvuku/Tafara area. A small group of women, around 6 am, began demonstrating against the recent price hikes by turning away a bread truck. Most people were just watching in amusement and the situation was calm, then for some reason things suddenly got out of hand and tensions rose. The demonstration turned violent and riots and looting began. People went into supermarkets, pharmacies, and butcheries taking things from the shelves and refrigerators. At least one doctor’s surgery was broken into and cleaned out of everything. Steel window and door screens and burglar bars were wrenched out of the walls. One bakery was broken into and glass display cases and refrigerators were destroyed. One man was seen with a whole hind quarter of a cow.

A Coca-Cola truck driver escaped before the angry residents stoned his truck before looting the soft drinks he was carrying. At Tsokachena, the biggest shopping centre in the area, residents stoned shops and looted mostly essential goods such as mealie-meal, sugar, and cooking oil. They also broke into shops such as Bata Shoe Company, Power Sales and Marowa bottle store. The looters were youths and women, some with babies strapped to their backs. Bread was strewn all over the place as demonstrators chanted anti-white and Government slogans.

Police were called in and fired teargas into the crowd and the whole area reportedly "exploded" spontaneously. A police truck was destroyed when it was turned on its side and set on fire at the Tafara Post Office. Twenty people were arrested for looting. Three people, including a girl, whose identification and whereabouts could not be established, were shot and injured as part of the crowd they were in allegedly tried to attack the police.