Zimbabwe university students prepare for head on collision with government

By Violet Gonda

12 January 2006

There is growing unrest in Zimbabwe over the deteriorating situation in the country. Many say the time has come to pile on the pressure through civil disobedience.

Fed up with the poor standard of education and living conditions at the University of Zimbabwe (UZ), the militant Student Executive Council have set the pace and warned that the 2006 academic year would be a fight for the rights of students both at the UZ and at national level.

Secretary General of the council Mfundo Mlilo said the students are going to be on the streets when university opens on 13th February. “We are going to confront the police and we are going be confronting anyone working against the interests of the students and the people of Zimbabwe.”

It has been the perception of the general population that when students demonstrate they are being a nuisance, but outspoken political commentator and University of Zimbabwe lecturer Dr John Makumbe said the students should be encouraged and supported. He said student demonstrations and activism are long overdue and they have the power to be at the forefront of confronting the dictatorship.”

Dr Makumbe said civil society should also come back to the trenches as unfortunately it is largely disintegrated. “You will need a magnifying glass to search for them and find them.” He believes the action by the students could see civil society rising from the ashes.

At a meeting on Wednesday the UZ president of the executive council urged all members to be prepared for a head on collision with the government.

Some observers have said if people want freedom to be delivered, pressure has to be applied through civil disobedience and other non-violent methods of confrontation. The Secretary General vowed to spill the unrest at the UZ into the whole nation. A statement by the group said, “If 2005 was a year of arrest, detention and torture, then 2006 is a year to sacrifice life for a new Zimbabwe.”

The student activists believe dialogue can no longer get the results that Zimbabweans are looking for. Mlilo added, “If the government of Zimbabwe is ready to fire live bullets at us then we are ready to confront them. We are ready to run in front of flying bullets in order to defend the rights of students and the rights of Zimbabweans.”

Observers have said it’s a tragedy that people have been left with no choice but to consider confronting the regime this way. They have tried the ballot box and other democratic approaches, such as the courts of law, but none of these methods have succeeded. Dr Makumbe believes freedom is not free saying there is a price to be paid in order to be free from a dictator. “I think it’s time now to get out of the pseudo democratic structures that are created by the dictator and operate outside them,” he said.

The student leaders said they have noted with concern the growing deterioration of life not only in universities but also in local communities, and the total disregard of human rights by the government. They say they have been inspired by the South African students who drove the struggle against apartheid and Indonesian students who were an important part in the ousting of their leader.

Giving his full support as a civic leader Dr Makumbe said he will be in the frontline with the students. “I will be prepared to be arrested, to be shot at, prepared to be beaten up. I have gone through all of these in the past and I can do it over and over again for the sake of the freedom of our country.”

The students have been hard hit by the economic mismanagement of the country, which has created one of the highest inflationary environments in the world. This has reduced their payouts to nothing. The student leadership has put in place plans for a national students convention that will set the platform for action in Zimbabwe. Students from all tertiary institutions are set to participate in this national cause.