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Students under siege
Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU)
August 29, 2004

Greetings to you all from the National Executive Secretariat, we present to you an analytical assessment of our challenges, aspirations as intellectuals, revolutionaries and more importantly the political discourse of our struggles.

As a point of departure, it is imperative that students understand their rights so that they are in a position to appreciate programmes of action that serve common interest within their various institutions.

The Right to Education
The right to education is a socio-economic right. It is one of the most important rights any student, child or youth can claim from the government. It will however be noted that this right is not granted in its entirely in the Bill of rights of our national constitution. This has resulted in the government of Zimbabwe through higher education authorities, arguing that students should not claim government funding as it is a privilege. To this date tertiary education is privatized. But the government should know that the right to education involves the right to its sponsorship thereof, without which, the right is meaningless as most of us are poor and cannot afford.

Our challenge therefore is to campaign for a constitutional entrenchment of the right to education in it's entirely as a way of guaranteeing that the government of Zimbabwe invests in education. It is important to point out that investment in sectors like education and health by a government is not a recurrent expenditure, but investment in human resources which are a prerequisite for the development of our nation. The government of Zimbabwe has failed to provide this fundamental right in its entirely.

The Right to Academic Freedom
The right to academic freedom is the right which students as scholars have to discover and disseminate knowledge of without any hindrance. The moving spirit behind the emergence of universities and tertiary institutions of learning was the need to advance scholarly and scientific interests and the desire to learn and know. Tertiary institutions and academic freedom are essential to the legitimacy of the political process and to answer the needs of society. A tertiary institution is a social institution and its curricula are largely governed by the needs of the society. It is also the only agency channeling political ideas to society in a rational manner because political sanity supposedly prevails at such an institution. To this date, student gatherings/meetings have been banned; student leaders and activists have been suspended and expelled in pursuance of academic freedom.

Students should know that when they are engaging in reasoned scholarly discourse in their various institutions, they will be exercising their right to academic freedom as provided in the lima Declaration on Academic Freedom and Autonomy of Tertiary Institutions of Learning to which Zimbabwe is a signatory. They should not be persecuted by anyone for reason of having engaged in this academic enterprise, even if the results may not be pleasing to the authorities. It will however be noted that the government of Zimbabwe continues to blatantly brutalize and victimize student leaders in pursuance of this fundamental right.

The Right to Freedom of Expression and Assembly
Freedom of expression serves truth by creating a market place of ideas, protects democracy, maintains social stability, protects social fulfillment, which encourages self autonomy and identity.

To this date, freedoms of expression and assembly have been relegated into history of the past. There are derogations which have been put in our national constitution. The derogations are so wide that they amount to a total regation of the right in question- the right is given with the left hand and taken away with the right hand.

In the case of academic freedom, the government suppresses this by enactment which directly gives them power to control institutions of higher learning.

The Recondite
In all tertiary institutions, the political atmosphere is not sympathetic to academic freedom. Students and lecturers have been targets of repression by the government. Attempts to get legitimate avenues to air independents thoughts have been thwarted student demonstrations have been met with acute and violent reprisals.

The intellectual climate necessary for a fruitful academic discourse has been curtailed by the council for Higher Education Act (1990), STI of 1990 which gives exorbitant powers to teacher college authorities to arbitrarily suspend and expel student teachers for sundry minor offences and the Universities Amendment Act (1990). The later Act effectively reduces Universities into departments of the Ministry of Higher Education. This piece of legislation gives the president of Zimbabwe the right to appoint himself chancellor of all state universities and also to appoint his Vice Chancellors. Throughout the Ministry of Higher Education, the President (R.G. Mugabe) appoints 65% of the members of the University Council which is the supreme decision making body of the university.

Such a state of affairs is an affront to academic freedom. The University is supposed to be political neutral and autonomous. Its chief executive, the Vice Chancellor is not supposed to a political animal. By the same token it applies to polytechnics and teachers colleges; the Principal is a political appointee.

Way forward
The Zimbabwe National Students' Union is gallantly committed to the liberation and emancipation of all students, to this end, students must keep abreast and agitated to confront the source of neurosis, as it is the vanguard of it all. ZINASU will continue to mobilize students across board to participate in national collective action for the realization of an enabling environment, socially, economically and politically for students to utilize their full potential. If the Mutambaras won in 1989 what can stop us from winning today. If students in Indonesia succeed against Suharto in 1998 why cant us?

Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocre minds the later can not understand it when men does not thoughtlessly submit himself to hereditary prejudices "Albert Einstein"

Fear is a state of nervousness fit for children not men if men fear men he offends God the image through which he was created "Mahatma Gandhi"

We demand

• The reintroduction of government provided catering services.
• The review of students payout to at least $3 000 000.00 per year across polytechnics, teachers colleges and universities.
• The repeal of the STI of 1990 and draconian ordinances governing teachers colleges, polytechnics and universities.
• The repeal of the joint meal and accommodation policy.
• The abrogation of the partisan National Strategic Studies and militia training under the pretext of National Youth Service.
• The disbandment of the Boarder Gezi certification as a pre-requisite for college enrollment . The cessation of all forms of torture, harassment and victimization of student leaders and activists. .
• Urgent reinstatement of all suspended and expelled student leaders and activists as their cause is justified.
• The upgrading and renovation of facilities in all tertiary institutions of learning.

For and on behalf of ZINASU
Jabusile M. Shumba Vice President

Visit the ZINASU fact sheet

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