Student leader hospitalized after ‘push’ from second floor window

By Lance Guma
09 May 2007

Clifford Hlatshwayo, the Vice President of the University of Zimbabwe Students Representative Council, was hospitalized on Tuesday after he was allegedly thrown out of a second floor window on campus. In the early hours of the morning 4 to 6 suspected state security agents raided the room he was sleeping in and started assaulting him. His assailants kept on taunting him with the words, ‘tinoziva zvamuri kuronga’ (we know what you are planning). There are however conflicting reports on whether Hlatshwayo jumped from the room in an attempt to flee or was pushed by his assailants.

The students union insist he was pushed while another statement from the Students Solidarity Trust said he, ‘only managed to get away by jumping out of the first floor window where he sustained injuries to the head, right hand and right leg. The statement also says he is recovering at a private clinic in Harare. In an interview with Newsreel, Promise Mkwananzi the President of the Zimbabwe National Students Union who visited Hlatshwayo on Wednesday, said his colleague had deep cuts to the face and suspected internal injuries from the fall. He said specialists are already trying to ascertain if there are any injuries to his spinal chord.

Hlatshwayo is the only remaining student leader from a radical crop of leaders that was expelled from the university. He is spearheading a campaign by the Progressive Student Movement to ensure government sponsored candidates do not take over the students union. Mkwananzi said they suspect the attack on Hlatshwayo is an attempt to ‘break the centre’ of the Progressive Student movement and its campaign on campus. Only last month Hlatshwayo was acquitted of malicious injury to property by a court following what the students termed ‘cooked up charges.’

Meanwhile there are reports that 20 students were arrested in Bulawayo after police foiled a demonstration at the National University of Science and Technology (NUST). Mkwananzi told us that several student leaders are now in hiding for fear of reprisals by the state. Not much information was available at the time we went on air but Mkwananzi said they were still trying to piece together events and find out who had been picked up. On Friday students are holding a summit in Harare to discuss the current climate in which they learning in. It’s not yet clear whether the police will try and disrupt this particular gathering.