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8th Anniversary of the murder of Batanai Hadzidzi
Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU)
April 03, 2009

On the 9th of April 2009, the Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU) will mark the 8th Anniversary of the murder of Batanai Hadzizi a Bachelor of Science first year student at the University of Zimbabwe.

Hadzizi was murdered in cold blood by a group of drugged riot police officers in his room at the Halls of Residence during a demonstration on the night of 8 April 2001.

The demonstration started after a first year female student Tecla Tom Bachelor of Arts student committed suicide in her room at Swinton Halls of Residence after her boyfriend denied responsibility of her pregnancy.

The male students reacted in sympathy to Tecla's death and sought to rid the institution of non-student male visitors and accused them of bringing misery to the female students at the University. The protest was dubbed the anti NABA (Non Academic Bachelors Association) campaign an acronym for relatively rich non male students who flirt with female students.

The riot police then descended at the university campus closing all emergency exit doors, firing tear gas canisters into halls of residence and indiscriminately beating up students. It was unfortunate that the police door to door operation started in his corridor and his door was unlocked. The police bashed him and realising that he was either dead or critically injured, they watered him in an attempt to resuscitate him. His body was ferried in a Mazda pick up truck using his mattress as a stretcher bed and was taken to the trauma centre were he was pronounced dead. The riot police later indicated that Hadzizi was trampled by fellow students during a stampede as the students were running.

A post mortem was carried out after the death of Hadzizi and results read ''Asphyxia due to bilateral lung contusions and rib-cage soft tissue injustices caused by blunt force.'' Marks of baton sticks were visible on his entire body. This clearly showed that Batanai died because of severe beatings from the riot police and suffocation from teargas smoke.

A university security guard, Godfrey Macheka who testified before a Harare Magistrate Courts at the hearing of the inquest into the death of Hadzizi confessed that the riot police had indeed killed Hadzizi and had lied that Hadzizi was trampled during a stampede. During the testimony Macheka said he was present when a police officer beat up Hadzizi with a truncheon and left him for dead. Testifying before Wilbert Mandinde, the magistrate, he said: ''I was asked by Mr Tarambiwa,my immediate boss, to explain what had happened to the student and my answer was that he was trampled on during a stamped. Why I said that is because I did not think anything serious was going to happen to him, so I was trying to cover up for my fellows- the police officers,''Macheka said.

Never in the history of the university has a student been killed during a demonstration though they have been attempts and the list include Garudzo Masenga,who was short in the neck on 29 June 1995 and Memories Chawira in 1998,and the two however recovered.

The Zimbabwe National Students Union demands that an independent inquiry team revisit the Hadzizi case and the culprits should be brought to book for murder charges.

The union has lined up a series of activities that will run through out the year in honour of Hadzizi and other departed colleagues from the students union, the likes of the Learnmore Jongwe, Lameck Chemvura and Christopher Giwa.

Visit the ZINASU fact sheet

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