Back to Index

15 arrested as police clash with students at Bulawayo Poly
Tererai Karimakwenda, SW Radio Africa
June 02, 2008

http://www.swradioafrica.com/news030608/Arrests030608.htm

A peaceful demonstration is reported to have turned into running battles between students and riot police at the Bulawayo Polytechnic College on Tuesday. 15 students, including the Student Representative Council President Simba Kuzipa and SRC Sports Director Leopold Tapi, were bundled into a police car and taken into custody. One police officer and 3 students are reported to have sustained serious injuries.

Students say many issues had made a decent life impossible at the institution, but tensions reached boiling point when the College Administration ordered them to pay top up fees of Z$75 billion. This was after the students were charged Z$140 million last term.

According to our Bulawayo correspondent Lionel Saungweme, the problems started when police ordered the students to disperse. Student leaders insisted that they needed their grievances addressed because the campus had become a health hazard, with only one toilet for 3000 students. They explained that they were living without any food and there was rarely any water on campus. When they did have water, it was dirty, brown and not drinkable.

Saungweme said the police answered: "Hazvisi zvedu izvi", meaning 'that is not our problem.' Reinforcements arrived at this point and running battles began between the students and the police with the frustrated students throwing stones at the police.

Our correspondent said he saw one injured police officer and at least three students who were beaten so severely that they required medical attention. 15 students were thrown into police vehicles and taken to Bulawayo Central Station. It is not yet clear under what conditions they are being held.

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP