ZIMBABWE: Lecturers strike while students face crackdown

Lecturers at the National University of Science and Technology, Zimbabwe's main science university, have gone on strike over unpaid allowances. Meanwhile, the state has renewed its crackdown on students resulting in countrywide arrests, court appearances, abductions, disciplinary hearings and expulsions over demonstrations staged on 29 March in protest against continuing deterioration of higher education standards.

The lecturers at the state-run NUST in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second largest city, went on strike after the authorities stopped paying them transport and food allowances amounting to US$180 per month, citing financial constraints.

The industrial action began just days after students embarked on nationwide demonstrations on 29 March, the second anniversary of elections that nearly toppled the regime of autocratic President Robert Mugabe following 29 years of uninterrupted rule.

Mugabe barely hung on to power after defeat by his main rival Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Tsvangirai did not however gain more than the 50% of the vote required by law to win the presidency, forcing a run-off. Mugabe was later declared the winner of the second round of voting after the MDC leader pulled out of the race citing widespread murder and torture of his supporters.

The electoral impasse ended only after South African-led mediation between the two warring sides resulted in the formation of an inclusive government last year, in which Mugabe remained as President while the MDC leader was sworn in as Prime Minister.

In the students' latest countrywide demonstrations, held under the theme 'Igniting Students' Voices - My vote spoke 29 March 2008 elections', police retaliated against the protesters with water cannons, batons and even bare fists.

Following the demonstrations, 30 students from Great Zimbabwe University were summoned for disciplinary hearings at the college for participating in the protests.

At Midlands State University in Gweru, student Obert Masaraure was suspended for contravening section 3.1.4 of ordinance No 2 of 2009 by allegedly engaging in conduct likely to be harmful to the interests of the university.

A letter of suspension written to Masaraure by the institution's Vice-chancellor Professor Ngwabi Bhebhe, reads in part: "The brief allegations against you are that you are the ringleader of a group which calls itself the Orange Revolution...

"The group printed and distributed to other students posters inciting them to demonstrate against what you called 'satanic fees, unpalatable plate of Sadza and astronomical rentals'. In my view your actions were calculated to incite the students' body to be violent."

In Harare, 10 students, including Joshua Chinyere, President of the Zimbabwe National Union Students (Zinasu), appeared at the Harare Magistrates Court and were remanded out of custody until 15 April because of the demonstrations.

There was also an abduction by suspected state agents of student leader Zivanai Muzorodzi, the Zinasu Treasurer General, on 1 April. Muzorodzi was severely assaulted and later dumped at Lake Kyle after leading a student demonstration on 29 March.

His abductors warned him against interfering in national politics and threatened him with death if they ever heard that he had organised more programmes against Zanu-PF, Mugabe's political party.

Following the crackdown on the students, Zinasu issued a statement saying it "strongly castigates the increase in the number of cases of student victimisations by the state apparatus. They are intimidating, harassing and assaulting dissenting voices in colleges with the aim of silencing them."

Zinasu said it was compiling data on all cases of student victimisation since the beginning of the year and will present them to Tsvangirai at a meeting scheduled for this week.

The student body added that the brutality inflicted on its members signified the re-emergence of lawlessness in the country, coinciding with a visit from South Africa of Julius Malema, the controversial president of the African National Congress Youth League who has been accused of fanning hatred in his own country.

It described Malema's visit as "unacceptable, inciteful and politically misplaced".

Meanwhile, law students have clashed with Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa after he told a parliamentary inquiry that students who were graduating were "half baked lawyers".

The Zimbabwe Law Students Association dismissed the minister's assertions, saying the law faculty at the University of Zimbabwe had produced successive teams between 2007 and 2009 that had won the annual International Moot Competition organised by the International Committee of the Red Cross in Arusha, Tanzania, beating 14 teams from various law schools across Africa including South Africa and Kenya.

The association added that Zimbabwean lawyers worked for a number of prestigious organisations such as the International Criminal Court at The Hague.

The students said the justice minister was not aware of the situation on the ground - and neither were some of the country's leaders who opted to send their children to study abroad to escape run-down facilities at home, such as Mugabe and Tsvangirai whose daughters were studying at Hong Kong and Australian universities.

"Since the minister and other privileged people in our society educate their children in the US, the UK and other exotic places under the sun, he might genuinely be unaware of the dire straits the students at the faculty find themselves in," said the Zimbabwe Law Students Association.

"Lastly, we would like to commend the law faculty staff for their sterling contribution towards quality legal education in the face of the most trying of situations. We find the honourable Minister's comments unhelpful, hurtful and disrespectful."

Comment:
Well responded Zimbabwe Law Students Association, telling them like it is.

Bhurugwa