WOZA women arrested over fee protests

By Violet Gonda
19 June 2006

At least 100 activists from the group Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) were arrested after a peaceful demonstration in Matabeleland South, Monday. The tireless WOZA women had taken their education campaign to the rural areas protesting against unaffordable school fees and the chasing home of children over unpaid fees. Fees have gone up from five hundred thousand to five million dollars.

Last month the pressure group embarked on an anti fee-hike campaign targeting government and council schools in Harare and Bulawayo.

This time WOZA members from Filabusi Town in Insiza organized themselves and demonstrated at the District Education Ministry offices demanding their children’s right to an education.

Woza reports that about 160 members had participated in the protest in Insiza. WOZA coordinator Jenni Williams said 109 activists were arrested and were appearing in court. 18 other women were detained after handing themselves in to the police in solidarity. They were later released.

The pressure group held a similar demonstration in Bulawayo but this time targeting the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) and Department of Social Welfare.

Williams said; “ We spent five minutes outside ZESA and fired a warning shot – a peaceful warning shot - to ZESA, that we are unhappy with the service they are giving us and then we proceeded to the Department of Social Welfare. We really wanted the Social Welfare Minister Nicholas Goche to understand implicitly that if he doesn’t help us to access our right to earn a living, our right to trade, our right to be vendors un-harassed; that he will then be processing us for social welfare grants.”

Williams believes the 1 000 Bulawayo demonstrators were not disrupted by the police because the women had been tipped off that the police were planning to disrupt and arrest them, so they used a different and unusual route. Commenting about the no arrests in the Bulawayo demo Williams said, “This time the police were caught napping.”

Tuesday is World Refugee Day and Jenni Williams said the demonstration in Bulawayo was held because of this. “Basically our message is we are refugees in our own country. We are determined that the flame of hope should remain alive and for us that flame of hope is represented by our right to trade, our right to sell, so that we can survive.”