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Student Leaders abducted from their residence
Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU)
November 13, 2006

National University of Science and Technology (NUST) Student Representative Council (SRC) president, Clever Bere and the Secretary General, Mehluli Dube were in the late hours of Saturday 11 November 2006, abducted by police and state security agents from a Bulawayo suburb located a few miles from the NUST campus.

The two were identified dropping off a NUST bus in the Parklands suburb, where they were tracked and subsequently abducted by a gang of six to an old local church office which was turned into a police base. More than 95% of the students population stays out of campus due to the abandoned NUST construction project by government, where students forcibly resort to unfit accommodation in suburbs around the campus location and some coming as far as Nkulumane, Lobengula and Nketa.

The rogue regime has therefore set police bases in these areas, unlike other institutions such as the Midlands State University (MSU), where the police bases are illegally located on campus. Bere and Mehluli were heavily tortured, accused of being allied to ZINASU and threatened with death, saying that no one will ever see and know of them again " the Edison Sithole style."

The two were forced to remove their shoes, run on bare foot around the streets of Parklands and crawl back to the old church offices. One overzealous police officer punched Mehluli on the face when he declared his association with ZINASU and reiterated that he will not apologise for recognising ZINASU as the national students' body. After the long ailing torture, the two were walked to Bulawayo Central Police station and further detained until the following day. The two were released on fine.

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