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Youth Forum position on University of Zimbabwe mass evacuations
Zimbabwe Youth Forum (ZYF)
July 13, 2007

As a youth representative body, which seeks to influence policy formulation and development in the country so as to attain sustainable livelihoods for all and the youths in particular, we note with profound distress the inhuman Monday 9th June mass evacuation of more than 5 000 University of Zimbabwe students from campus residence who are currently writing their final year examinations.

This evacuation, which is reminiscent of the globally condemned Operation Murambatsvina, left students stranded and exposed to the adverse effects of this brutal winter as they slept in the open. Students allocated residents on University of Zimbabwe campus come from outside Harare and most of them have no relatives in Harare.

University of Zimbabwe students, who were given a 30 minute notice to vacate campus, were ruthlessly thrown into the open by heavily armed police after demanding a slash in tuition fees increment inline with the ongoing government exercise of slashing prices of commodities and services in the country. This move demonstrates the regular hypocritical nature of the government and has exposed its policy inconsistencies.

We note with regret that the ZANU (PF) kleptocratic regime being led by President Robert Gabriel Mugabe who doubles as the University of Zimbabwe chancellor and represented by his political appointee vice chancellor professor Levy Nyagura has sadly surpassed the adverse effects of the HIV/Aids pandemic in Sub Saharan Africa in as far as causing human suffering and death is concerned.

As we acknowledge the ongoing efforts by ordinary citizens who have taken it upon themselves to house and feed the desperate students, we call upon the parents, churches, the business community and all the pro-democratic forces in the country to urgently come to the assistance of thousands of students who have been condemned into destitution by the ruling dictatorship.

Meanwhile, we urge all the students in the country to remain resolute and committed to the fight for a new socio-economic and political dispensation in the country.

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