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Student activists appear in a Bindura court
Students Solidarity Trust
July 01, 2010

18 students were yesterday acquitted by a Bindura magistrate on a count of holding a public gathering with the intention of inciting public violence. At the ongoing trial in Bindura, magistrate Murove acquitted the 18 for lack of evidence. However, 8 students still have to endure the persecution after their names appeared in the various witness statements given by the state witnesses. Joshua Chinyere, Grant Tabvurei, Wisdom Mgagara, Prosper Nyandimu, Mark Tena, Ian Makone, Hamon Chabuka and Tashinga Mudzengi will have to go back to court on July 13 as the trial was further postponed. The witnesses included the Dean of students, the chief security officer and two police officers.

Dean of students in his testimony confirmed that he had heard singing and seen one student give a speech from a table top but could not really tell who it was. The other state witness the Chief Security Officer who put his sterling credentials on the table of 14 years working experience, 10 years in the Zimbabwe Republic Police, two years at the Great Zimbabwe University and two years at the Bindura University is infamously known for his reign of terror; during his tenure at Great Zimbabwe University the students regarded him as ruthless and intolerant to opposing views. Considering the nature of the student movement, it is unnecessary to treat students like criminals. The other two state witnesses are police officers who got to the scene of arrest who were giving incoherent testimonies which were not supported by original statements made when they arrested the students.

It is the state's case that on January 14 2010, the students gathered at Bindura University with the intention to incite public violence. The students argue that they had gathered to discuss the pressing issues of examinations as students were being barred from sitting for their examinations by school authorities. Although the 8 students remain, the state's case continues to be premised on little if any evidence at all as witness statements could only identify them but not link them to any crime. This continues a pattern of student persecution by various college authorities around the country that has seen scores of students being either suspended or expelled on flimsy grounds. It is also a continuation of a worrying trend of harassment and lack of respect for the rule of law by authorities who continue to violate students' rights to association and expression through invoking, sometimes wrongly, sections of the Public Order and Security Act [POSA].

At a time when Zimbabwe has been boasting to the world of progress albeit very little made through the inclusive government, students' fortunes have not turned a corner. College authorities, the state through the police and sections of government continue to play fantasy football with the lives of students. Not only are these students being denied the right to education, they are also being arrested, and harassed by the state. Students demand an end to all the persecution and demand a free education for all.

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