Back to Index

Student leaders handed over to torture squad
Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU)
August 06, 2009

President of the Zimbabwe National Students Union, Clever Bere, has been handed over to the dreaded Zimbabwe police's Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Law and Order unit after being transferred from Avondale Police Station this afternoon. This unit is notorious for torturing and disappearing thousands of democracy activists, including most recently the torture of civic leader Jestina Mukoko.

The ZINASU President was arrested on the 5th of August 2009 together with other students during a students meeting at University of Zimbabwe. The meeting was held to address student concerns over issues of exorbitant tuition fees being levied on students, the disrupted academic calendar and, government support for students. Majority of students at the institution are from poor families and largely drawn from outside Harare, where the university is located. With hostels closed, and the university insisting on an upfront payment of tuition before enrolment, many students are likely to be deprived an opportunity to learn. The university fee structure is absurd with the lowest amount being asked for by the authorities is about US$404 for students studying in the Humanities Faculty.

The university has been closed for a year due to dilapidated water and sewerage infrastructure, crippling exodus of qualified teaching staff and lack of resources to kick start the new semester. Standards are now a far cry from what they used to be.

The government has embarked on a systematic and deliberate policy to banish students from accessing tertiary education in Zimbabwe. This is a direct policy of making education a preserve for the rich at the expense of the daughter and son of the common worker and peasant

Of the 14 initially arrested, only Bere and three others remain detained. The four are being charged under section 37 of the Criminal Codification Act for . . . ''participating in a gathering with intent to promote breach of peace or bigotry.'' Though some sources are indicating that the four might be taken to court tomorrow we are not sure if that will happen. This pattern is in line with previous experiences of punitive detention of democracy activist where torture will be used as a punishment for political deviance.

These violations are a clear affront to freedom of association, expression, conscience and a violation of Bere and other detainees' dignity. These arrests are happening a few days after the three days of Dedication to National Reconciliation and in a period of 'constitution making' poses frightening questions. How can reconciliation and freedom be guaranteed when the onslaught against public, peaces gathering of unarmed citizens are disrupted and leaders are thrown into torture chambers?

The meeting sort dialogue and an honest conversation by students who are a stakeholder in the education system on how to contribute to the goal of ensuring that the university as a public institution is able to contribute to the country's skills bank.

What is very much worrying to us is that this government has turned a blind eye on our education. It's quite sad that Ministers pride in latest Mercs, Cherokees, and some of them have now become permanent residence at flamboyant and FIVE Star Hotels namely Meikles, Crowne Plaza etc, and their children learning in South Africa, Australia and Europe at the expense of the toiling masses of Zimbabwe. What extravagance and outright hypocrisy for the government to refuse to fund education.

Lastly, we call for the immediate release of President Bere and his colleagues, and we call upon all pro democratic Zimbabweans to insist on the release of the student activists and to pressure the Zimbabwe government to guarantee that the detained will not be tortured.

We encourage the government of Zimbabwe to promote, instead of stifle, basic human liberties.

Visit the ZINASU fact sheet

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