0ver 70 students arrested in Bulawayo

By Violet Gonda
6 February 2007

A peaceful demonstration over unaffordable fees and deteriorating standards of education has left scores of Bulawayo students in detention and some injured. The coordinator of the Students Solidarity Trust, Macdonald Lewanika, said: “We have been able to account for 79 students who we know police have taken away and about eight students who have been injured.”

He said students from colleges and universities in Bulawayo had on Tuesday marched from the centre of town to the provincial governor’s office when armed riot police violently broke up the march. Lewanika said: “In the process they threw teargas at the students who started running in different directions and the police started chasing them, beating some.”

Those arrested are said to have been taken to Bulawayo Central Police Station. We were not able to get a comment from the police.

The demonstration was attended by students from Bulawayo Polytechnic College, National University of Science and Technology, United College of Education and Hillside Teachers College. Lewanika said student leaders from other parts of the country also travelled to Bulawayo to act in solidarity with their peers.

He said: “Amongst those who have been arrested, we have got a student leader from the University of Zimbabwe. One of the injured people is Edwin Murira, who is from the SRC from the Chinhoyi University.

Most of the grievances by the students centre on the issue of tuition fee increases, accommodation and social services and against plans by the Mugabe regime to move the presidential election from 2008 to 2010.

The coordinator of the Students Solidarity Trust said this was an unjustified action on the part of the police and a clear case of intimidation. “And what will probably happen is that most of these students are going to be released without charge but after having been harassed, after having been beaten.”