ZINASU leaders arrested as students hold surprise demo in Harare

By Lance Guma
05 October 2006

Promise Mkwananzi, the President of the Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU), and several members of the executive were arrested Wednesday evening soon after a protest march in Harare by students demanding better education. Over 800 students are reported to have marched through the streets of the capital after catching the security forces off guard. Last week the union threatened to demonstrate but did not disclose the date of the action over fears the police would prepare to crush it. This also followed the seizure of their placards by security agents who worked on destabilising their structures that same week.
This time around the students presented a petition to the Higher Education minister Stan Mudenge before walking through Harare gardens towards the parliament building nearby. The protest was dubbed ‘the long march to academic freedom,’ with students demanding ‘free education, economic revival and an end to police brutality.’ Placard waving students chanted revolutionary songs while others barricaded roads in the city. Towards the end of the march police riot squads arrived and fired teargas to disperse the protesters. A heavy police presence could be seen around the city centre streets. But by then the students had dispersed.

Human rights activist Pedzisai Ruhanya who observed the protest says the students showed good organisational skills in mobilising for the demonstration and that the turnout was impressive. He disclosed that although Mkwananzi and his colleagues were arrested they were released the same night by the police. But some of the students were assaulted while in custody. Ruhanya says the beatings are no longer a surprise because ‘the police are paid to disobey the laws that they are supposed to uphold.’ Asked whether it was a good time for the many pressure groups in the country to unite for one united protest Ruhanya said the time would come when this would happen but in the meantime the various groups needed to express their agenda.