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Understanding the system of subjugation of student activism
Students Solidarity Trust
February 01, 2011

• 54 million to be availed for 1500 students on Mugabe Scholarship
• 100 million needed for more than 25 000 students for student grants/loans to be resuscitated
• Up to 140 student activists have been expelled/suspended for demanding student grant/loans

Part 1

Student activism in Zimbabwe is under systematic attack, with isolated incidents, policies, programmes and activities instigated by the Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU PF) either through government policy or through authorities at learning institutions or the police being part of a bigger systematic and strategic plot to annihilate student activism. Arrests, torture, suspension and expulsion of student activists from colleges and universities, the presidential scholarship, scrapping of the grant/loan facility, introduction of cadetship scheme, labelling of student activists as hooligans, amendments of University of Zimbabwe (UZ) Act, closure of halls of residence, elimination of Students Representative Council (SRC), splits and factions in national students movement are developments that must be understood as part of a bigger plot at the behest of ZANU PF to dispel the eternal threat posed by a student initiated national revolution to dislodge it from its more than 30 year cling on power.

By Students Solidarity Trust

The systematic attack is executed through a well laid out strategic plan stretching as far back as 1999 when students united with the labour to form the first robust opposition political party; the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). The strategy has been successful given that Zimbabwe is a Christian nation and a Sarajevo incident such as self-immolation currently being witnessed in the Arab world sparked by Tunisia's Terek Al-Tayyib Muhammad ibn Bouaziz or simple Mohamed Bouazizi are not likely to happen. Armed forces managed to quell an uprising on June 2, 2003 final push where students boldly marched towards the State House and as a result two students were reportedly killed and many limbs were lost. Since then student activism is under consistent check. The role played by students in Tunisian street protests that have resulted in its President Zine El Abidine Ali fleeing the country after 23 years hold on power is currently being studied to prevent students from doing the same here in Zimbabwe. Social networks and cell phone communication is under strict monitoring. A face book group "1 million March to Remove Mugabe Regime" has been set up and it is gaining increased membership.

In suppressing student activism there are detailed methods, procedures and routines established to tone down the eternal threat posed by student activism to the Mugabe regime. The interrelated and interdependent elements or components of the system include the university authorities (vice-chancellors, student disciplinary hearing committees, campus security officers, members of the academia, student informers); Central Intelligence Organization (CIO) operatives at universities and colleges; police and courts. Other interdependent factors include government policies and also in particular unaffordable fees structure, cadetship scheme, presidential scholarship, closure of Student Union Building and halls of residence at UZ, hindrance of SRC activities; suppressing of activities of student organizations in campus; biased state media, prohibiting students from participating in civil society activities and many others. Within this bigger system there are sub-systems with their own peculiar elements, components and factors. These elements and factors continually influence one another directly and indirectly to maintain the activity and existence of the system in order to achieve the common goal of suppressing student activism and averting the threat it poses to the establishment of ZANU PF. Even this student activism subjugation system is part of a bigger system that has seen ZANU PF being in power for than 30 years.

The Student Activism Subjugation system obeys rules which can not be understood by breaking them into parts. Attempts at addressing students' plight have suffered as other wise progressive actors in the inclusive government and civil society have failed to appreciate that many of the problems being faced by the student community are artificial, man-made and a consequence of challenges to perpetuate ZANU PF's hold on power. Understanding the subjugation of student activism as a deliberately set system helps in organizing the thoughts, programmes and activities of civil society organizations and stakeholders involved in the work of ameliorating the plight of students.

It is critical to demonstrate highlights on how student activism is dealt with. When students peacefully protests, be it over tuition fees, shortage of library books or poor meals they are violently and immediately dispersed by university security personnel. Student activists whether they were involved in organising the protests or not are picked and taken to what is known as Control Room for detention, torture, report writing and at times overnight detention. They are then handed over to police, further torture and interrogation usually characterise their stay in police custody. They are either forced to pay admission of guilty forms or taken to the courts. The state media and university authorities aid the subjugation by labelling the student activists as hooligans a perception that has also been blindly imported by some civil society organizations and progressive actors in the inclusive government. Normally they are then subjected to routine court appearances with some cases running for two or so years. The student activists are then suspended pending hearings. The admission of guilty forms and the reports the students write in most cases under duress at the Control Rooms are then used during Kangaroo like Student Disciplinary Committee (SDC) hearings. Representation by competent lawyers and fellow students of choice during the hearings more often than not faces resistance from the disciplinary committee. Most members of the panel will be dosing during the SDC hearings proceedings only to come to life when passing the guilty verdict. The village bound expelled or suspended student activist then become a living example of what happens when you dare protest or voice over anything at universities and colleges.

To eradicate totally all potential activists at campuses authorities devised a strategy of targeting a certain class in selecting students to enroll at universities and colleges from February 2006. This class is not chosen on merit through being best students with the best A level results but on parenthood. Only well groomed and spoiled sons and daughters of well to do parents are being selected for enrolments. The criteria to identify if an applying student is a "well groomed" easy going student is simple; the applicant must be from an A school and his parents and guardians must be able to fork out the required fees in full. The fees are simple beyond the reach of many civil servants included and thus their sons and daughters are simple not expected to make it to the institutions because if they do they will be source and cause of protests as they can not afford the university or college life. To cushion sons and daughters of ZANU PF loyalists already enrolled at university who naturally pose no risk of initiating protests a cadetship scheme was introduced. The access process to the scheme is rigorous for those who are not ZANU PF loyalists. Another facility for ZANU PF loyalists is the infamous treasury funded Presidential Scholarship.

The nation is made to believe that the scholarship is meant for the academically gifted but poor and the marginalized students. Alas this is part of a system of prolonging ZANU PF's hold on power. You had to be there on January 29, 2011 when 490 of total 1500 undeserving recipients of the scholarship left for South Africa to begin their studies to witness their fabulous hair dos, the expensive colourful dressing, over the top facial make up, their travelling bags and also parents, relatives and guardians accompanying them. They are mostly sons of position holders in ZANU PF-senators, chiefs, and uniformed forces personnel and mostly from Manicaland and Mashonaland West. They are sons of daughters of beneficiaries of chieftainship cars, parliamentary car scheme, land reform A2 farms and the list is endless. They are the poor and disadvantaged. There are 16 Universities on board for the scholarship with each charging an average of US$2000 per term as fees and this year alone 1500 students would be sent to this facility at a total cost of US$54 million extorted from genuinely poor as tax. In contrast all tertiary education institutions in Zimbabwe funded through the treasury under Mudenge's ministry with more than 25 000 student population require a meager US$100 million for the grant system to be resuscitated. This year a meager 15 million was allocated through treasury for loans and grants. 1500 ZANU PF loyalists on presidential scholarship are gobbling more than half of what more than 25 000 Zimbabwean students require as student grants/loans. This is how the system of subjugating student activism operates.

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