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Students'
evictions
Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU)
July 12, 2007
Over the past
few months repression of all kinds has been on the increase in Zimbabwe
with the latest being the unjustifiable evictions of students from
the University
of Zimbabwe campus.
More shocking
are revelations that students were indiscriminately beaten up by
armed riot police who also looted the poor students' property. The
Zimbabwe Congress
of Trade Unions is shocked by the level of heavy-handedness
that has been used against the students by security agencies. What
the government is doing at the moment is depriving the majority
of Zimbabweans their basic right, the right to education.
The government should
bear the brunt of fee increases, for it is its obligation to subsidize
the education of its citizens and not just pass on the costs to
students and their parents. The time the students lost not attending
lessons was not of their own making but was because of government's
failure to address concerns of striking lecturers, so why should
students pay for government's negligence?
We believe that this
is a ploy to demobilize the students as some student activists have
already been expelled from various Universities round the country.
The ZCTU therefore calls
on the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education to ensure that
normalcy is restored at the UZ campus and students resume lecturers.
We also demand that a probe be carried out on the torture of the
students and looting of students' property during the evictions.
We further demand that
government addresses problems bedeviling the education system in
the country. The issues of high fees at tertiary institutions, a
decline in education standards and continued harassment of student
leaders remain unsolved as government turns a deaf ear to these.
As long as these issues remain unsolved student leaders will organize
for more serious strikes and resistance against the government and
we will stand by our children.
Visit the ZCTU
fact sheet
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