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A storm brews in Bulawayo...as NUST students engage in demo
Students Solidarity Trust
May 09, 2007

The current strike by lecturers at the National University of Science and Technology (NUST) and University of Zimbabwe is proving to be a cocktail for disaster.

Students are being shortchanged and the consequences have been too ghastly to contemplate.

It is against this background that students at the National University of Science and Technology engaged in a demonstration at the campus.

Scores of students have been arrested at the main campus this afternoon.

The whereabouts of the Students' Union, Clever Bere is uncertained. He was arrested just before he was due to address the students at the campus - he was in possession of placards which enunciated the demands for students.

Another student, Themba Maphenduka, is in critical condition after sustaining serious injuries after being 'bashed by the riot police'.

The campus resembled a battlefied as students fought running battles with the police and soldiers who had invaded the campus en'masse. Teargas canisters were strewn all over campus.

Scores of student leaders are currently in hiding.

The students at NUST contended that the strike by lecturers is prejudicing them, the current semester has now been extended by another 6 weeks owing to the strike. University of Zimbabwe face the same predicament - their semester has been extended by another 7 weeks owing to the strike by lecturers.

Mehluli Dube, Vice President of the students' union at NUST held that students are now faced with a grim future as they cannot afford to fund their stay at the College for another 6 weeks, as it is, they are failing to cater for themselves. Dube said that there is an alarming exodus of lecturers from NUST to an extent that teaching assistants have assumed full teaching responsibilities. Students also demanded that the government address the current economic meltdown.

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