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Woza protests
The Zimbabwe Independent
January 14, 2005

http://www.theindependent.co.zw/news/2005/January/Friday14/1442.html

WOMEN of Zimbabwe Arise (Woza), a militant women’s pressure group, yesterday staged a peaceful demonstration in Bulawayo to protest the rising cost of school fees and uniforms despite falling standards of education.

The women, numbering over 200, congregated at the main local bus terminus in the city before proceeding to Mhlahlandlela government complex where they sang and danced before presenting a petition to the Bulawayo governor, Cain Mathema.

The placard-waving demonstrators sang songs denouncing Education minister Aeneas Chigwedere whom they accused of bringing down education standards in the country.

Most schools raised fees for the new term by over 200%, a move that has left many parents unable to send their children to school.

Chigwedere is engaged in pitched battles with private schools over school fees increases with no solution in sight.

Some of the placards carried by the demonstrators read "Education for all, A broken promise of 1980", "Before We vote in 2005 Chigwedere must go" and "Our Children have the right to demand an education".

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