National student body announces demonstrations planned for next week

By Lance Guma
27 September 2006

The Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU) has announced that it will be holding demonstrations next week against the declining education standards in the country. ZINASU president Promise Mkwananzi told Newsreel they shelved planned protests last week because the police infiltrated their structures and destabilized all their logistical planning. He says security agents seized all the petitions they produced for the action and this forced them to cancel the demonstration. Mkwananzi says the student movement has regrouped and will ‘make the streets of Harare ungovernable next week.’

ZINASU refused to disclose the date of their planned protest saying this would only help the regime. The students are demanding an improvement in the quality of their education saying poor salaries are forcing their lecturers to seek greener pastures and leaving the students to get unqualified lecturers as replacements. Remarks by Mugabe that the regime will deal with any dissenting voices have not swayed the spirit in the student body Mkwanazi told Newsreel. The students are determined to get affordable education but the deteriorating economic environment was making things more difficult for them.

Meanwhile ZINASU have distanced themselves from a letter purportedly signed by its Vice President Gideon Chitanga criticising the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) and its president Dr Lovemore Madhuku and describing them as a flop. In a letter published by the Zim Daily website, Chitanga is alleged to have said Dr Madhuku had lost legitimacy as the NCA leader. Mkwananzi however says someone hacked into Chitanga’s e-mail and sent the letter to the website. ZINASU reaffirmed its support for the NCA calling Madhuku a committed and courageous individual in the struggle.