Student leaders jailed during weekend over Mugabe portrait

By Tererai Karimakwenda
08 May 2006

A group of student leaders who had gathered for the Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU) congress in Harare were arrested by police on Friday accused of disrespecting Robert Mugabe by allegedly vandalising his portrait. The students were represented by lawyer Alec Muchadehama who told us on Monday that initially a total of 48 students had been arrested. The police also charged them with stealing towels and water glasses from the Management Training Bureau in Msasa Park, the venue for their congress. Muchadehama said t hey were released in 3 separate groups over the weekend and by Sunday all had been set free.

The police decided to proceed by way of summons should their investigations yield any results. Some of the students were brutally assaulted by police when they were in custody on a different case earlier this year, but the lawyer said this time around they only received threats of unspecified physical harm. The Standard newspaper reported that o ne of the students who had been detained at Rhodesville Police Station was released by police after he collapsed while in the cells. The report said his condition deteriorated and he was rushed to the Avenues Clinic.

We were unable to reach any of the students on Monday but according to The Standard paper, incoming Zinasu president Promise Mkwananzi said when their congress started on Wednesday the students had resolved that they would not hold their deliberations with Mugabe’s portrait in the auditorium. The reasoning was that they believe Mugabe lost the 2002 Presidential election and his portrait is a form of legitimising his presidency.

ZINASU has been one of the organisations at the forefront of protests aimed at improving education and making it affordable to many students who have dropped out. Several student leaders have been arrested since last year and some were brutally assaulted by the police and state agents.

Meanwhile school opens this week and our correspondent Simon Muchemwa reports that many s tudents struggled to make it back. He said this semester in particular parents were unable to raise the fees after they went up by about 1000%. Muchemwa said he witnessed fewer than usual in Harare seeking transport to go back to boarding schools.