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ZINASU bi-annual congress a resound success
Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU) (Chinyere)
January 21, 2010

Students Elect New Leadership

Zimbabwe National Students Union held a resounding 7th Bi-Annual Congress on Saturday, 19 January 2010 at Belgravia Sports Club in Harare. The congress was convened under the theme, "Harnessing Students' Power For A Democratic Higher Education Transition". Three hundred and twenty students attended the event, 172 as congress delegates (had voting power) and 148 students as congress observers.

Regional partners from South Africa Students Congress (SASCO) and Zambia National Students Union (ZANASU) also graced the congress and took part in conducting elections. Various Civil society leaders mainly from youth formations took time from their busy schedule to attend the historic event which started at 9am and ended close to mid night. Speaker after speaker from partners reiterated the need for ZINASU to continue defending academic freedoms in Zimbabwe and hammered on the need for the Union to operate from a united front in a bid to achieve its Vision of seeing a robust education delivery system in the country.

The main niche of the congress was to come up with policies and ideas that ensure that education becomes accessible and affordable to all. Several crucial resolutions where made by the students from various colleges comprising of Universities, Polytechnic Colleges, Agricultural colleges and Teachers Colleges. Some of the resolutions that came out of the Congress are:

• Lobby and push for a supplementary budget allocation for higher education and the review of the current fees structure.
• Students reiterated the demand for affordable and quality education.
• Need to press for strong and comprehensive institutional reforms in the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education
• Students reaffirmed the resolution of the General Council on the constitution making process. ZINASU will actively campaign for the inclusion of the right to education in the constitution.
• Thus ZINASU will take part in the ongoing constitution making process as it gives them room to lobby for education to be recognised as a human right in the new constitution. This will also allow students to hold the Government to account if it fails to deliver affordable and quality education.
• ZINASU will continue to identify with pro-democracy political movements and will continue to fight for democracy to prevail in the country. In this regard ZINASU demands the full implementation of the Global Political Agreement
• The Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Dr Gideon Gono and the Attorney General Johannes Tomana must be immediately relieved of their duties as they are stumbling blocks to democratic transition.
• The National Executive Council must immediately undertake work towards the creation of regional structures. This will serve to deepen the internal democracy of ZINASU, devolve power to the regions and take ZINASU back to the students.
• The Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education must immediately adopt the recently launched Higher Education Policy which is a product of extensive consultation with the students of Zimbabwe and various stakeholders in higher education.
• ZINASU demands the urgent reversal of all politically motivated suspensions and expulsions that have taken place in institutions of higher learning.

The congress was wrapped up with elections which saw the election of new ZINASU National Executive Council (NEC) members. Cde Joshua Chinyere, from the University of Zimbabwe was elected the new ZINASU President taking over from the energetic Cde, Brilliant Dube who succeed Clever Bere in August 2009 at an Extra Ordinary General Council meeting.

Below is the List of the new NEC members and their profile

Please log on to our website, www.zinasu.org for the Congress in Pictures

Visit the ZINASU fact sheet

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