Student Leaders Arrested

Riot police today arrested 8 student leaders at the Palm Lodge in Harare where they were booked. The students were working on a petition that the Zimbabwe National Students Union is working on – a petition that is demanding that education in Zimbabwe be accessible to all. Students and parents are signing the petition.

ZINASU is scheduled to hold a general council meeting this weekend.

Armed riot police descended on the students in the morning, and were taken to the Harare Central Police Station. The police claim that they are interrogating the students and making an enquiry into their alleged involvement with the planned ZCTU protests next week. Although the students are still in police custody, there is no charge that has been preferred against them as yet.

The arrested students are Beloved Chiweshe, Secretary General of the Zimbabwe National Students Union, Milward Makwenjere, President of the Bulawayo Polytechnic, Gideon Chitange, George Makoni, Fungai Mageza, Lawrence Mashungu, Clayton Njova and Terrence Chimhavi.

The latest clampdown on the students comes in the wake of increasing pressure by the opposition MDC, civil society and the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) on the Harare regime to embrace democratic reforms which are an integral ingredient for rescuing this country from the political and economic morass – which has caused immense suffering to the majority of the people.

Media reports in Zimbabwe suggest that next week, the ZCTU will lead protests that are aimed at highlighting the plight of the workers to the government. The protests have received unwavering endorsement from the students’ body in Zimbabwe as well other civil society organizations.

To that extent, this stifling of the students’ right to assemble is ably informed by siege mentality that has engulfed this regime.

Issued by SST Information OfficeMarlboroughHarare