By Lance Guma
06 July 2005

Over 15 000 non-resident students at the country's universities will be stranded for accommodation when colleges open on the 18th August. The majority of students rent cottages in the various towns and with police demolishing most of these, student leaders are predicting a major disaster. Washington Katema, University of Zimbabwe Students Union leader and Vice President of the Zimbabwe National Students Union slammed the operation as 'barbaric, satanic and diabolical.

He said that universities were absorbing less than a third of the total student population and the rest had to look for accommodation on their own from private landlords. This is what made cottages the easier alternative as landlords prefer single people in their homes. Meanwhile Katema revealed that authorities at the Harare Polytechnic have imposed a curfew and are locking students up in their hostels after 9pm at night.

It effectively means the freedom of students is curtailed after 9pm and they become prisoners in their hostels. He described the move as a serious fire hazard and a ridiculous attempt to control students. A fire could easily break out at the hostels and the evacuation of students severely compromised. The National Students Union met the Dean of Students who failed to give a proper explanation for the curfew. Katema bemoaned the lack of financial resources as the main reason why they have lost the ability to mobilize students nationally on such important issues. With run away inflation most students are concentrating on basic survival.