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ZINASU leaders arrested at MSU after intelligence attempts to disrupt provincial congress flopped
Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU) NTCC
August 30, 2011

ZINASU leadership was arrested at Midlands State University (MSU) yesterday after police failed to disrupt the Provincial Congress for Midlands which was a resounding success. The leaders are Harare Provincial Chairperson, Pride Mkono and vibrant National University of Science and Technology (NUST) SRC Secretary General, Ezekiel Marimo were arrested at Midlands State University (MSU) yesterday the 29th of August 2011for staging a peaceful protest from campus through the high density suburbs of Senga and Nehosho were thousands of MSU students reside. They led over 400 students singing, sloganeering, dancing and denouncing the Ngwabi Bhebe administration for oppressing students and undermining the right of students to elect their own independent and autonomous Students Representative Council.

The police and security intelligence details, dispatched from Development House in Gweru town had earlier failed to disrupt students at Vashandiri Training Centre where they left a lot to be desired after pouncing on innocent students and ZINASU National Co-Chairpersons of the NTCC, Tafadzwa Mugwadi and Obert Masaraure among 16 others using button sticks, kicks and clenched fists. ZINASU has since made a report to the police in Mkoba's Nehanda Police Camp.

The MSU administration last week held a farce of an election in which only 150 of the 12 000 students voted while the rest were discriminated on the basis of their poverty status. They were disenfranchised because they could not raise the exorbitant fees for registration. ZINASU has since denounced the elections as null and void as they lacked legitimacy and credibility which include a quorum of about two thirds of the total enrollment. Moreover, the registration deadline set by the institution is 23 September meaning that all students should be treated as able to pay before that day and thus can't be discriminated before the deadline lapses. However the university is determined to cling to their sham since it gives legitimacy to their loyalists who do not carry the wishes of the ordinary suffering students reeling under miserable conditions.

Mkono and Marimo were arrested by armed MSU security details at Senga shopping centre and taken to Senga police station where they were interrogated and detained. Lawyers from Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) responded quickly through Brian Dube and Mufika who stood for the firebrand students' leaders and negotiated their release from the filthy and inhuman cells of Senga police station where they had been detained. They are set to appear before the court today the 30th of August 2011 at around 1400hrs facing charges of illegal gathering with intent to cause public violence and indecent assault.

Meanwhile, the fearless outgoing SRC President of MSU, Believe Tevera and the just elected Chairman of Midlands Province Tryvine Musokeri, Joseph Muzangwa and other 27 student activists in the Province are being man hunted by the Law and Order Section and notorious members from the Police Internal Security Intelligence (PISI) in connection with the riotous situation that engulfed the campus and surrounding suburbs yesterday.

Among the various demands raised and printed on the banner were; an end to satanic and diabolic fee structure; an end to the corruption that characterize allocation of halls of residence; provision of transport to students who stay in Senga and Nehosho as well as the reintroduction of loans and grants for all students.

ZINASU strongly condemns such unwarranted behavior by the Police force which is meant to destabilize ZINASU and its activities, now that the efforts of the union are now united under the NTCC. ZINASU has since mobilized hundreds of students from the Midlands Province to throng the courts today and demand justice from the Police.

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