University students threaten more protests over evictions

By Lance Guma
10 July 2007

Over 4000 students at the University of Zimbabwe were left homeless after armed police gave them 30 minutes to leave their halls of residence on Monday. A day later one member of the students union told Newsreel they were meeting Wednesday to map out their response. Zwelithini Viki the outgoing Information and Publicity Secretary in the SRC said thousands of students, some of whom come from places like Bulawayo, Mutare and Beitbridge, are stranded in the capital. Some are already sleeping out in the open. The Zimbabwe National Students Union announced it had managed to get a few students accommodated by various churches in the Mount Pleasant area.

Even those living in Harare cannot afford the bus fare to campus everyday. The entire campus is sealed off by riot police and student leaders have set up a private meeting place to discuss the crisis. Lectures are continuing as normal, with the added pressure for students of exams beginning next week. Viki vowed they would not be cowed by the ‘heartless’ actions of the administration and will fight on. The university was rocked by violent protests on Sunday because of demands by authorities for extra fees. The students argue the extension to the semester was caused by a lecturers strike and they cannot be made to foot the bill.

The Vice Chancellor Levy Nyagura came out guns blazing in the state media and accused the students of wanting to live for free. The students say the Vice Chancellor is off the mark and not addressing the root problems besetting the university. They say it’s his administration and the government that failed to deal with the lecturers strike from the onset. Even students who paid the top up fees have been evicted together with those who had not paid. This has already fuelled speculation the evictions were deliberately engineered to make it difficult for students to mobilise any form of protests. Viki conceded as much saying students in residence were a concentrated population while day scholars were always difficult to get together in one place.

Meanwhile six student leaders appeared in court Tuesday charged with various offences including the destruction of property on campus. They were all denied bail, with the court arguing the value of the property in question was too high to warrant bail. ZINASU president Promise Mkwananzi says they have now written directly to Mugabe to stop the madness at the university. He said they are currently mobilising every available constituency including their own parents to pressure the government into a u-turn. He however stressed that students would still continue with their defiance campaign and protest even more.