SW Radio Africa (London)
Lance Guma
21 September 2007
The Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU) is busy mobilizing its membership for a national class boycott after authorities raised tuition fees for the second year running. From paying Z$60 000 per semester, students will now have to fork out Z$10 million. Students were already failing to pay the fees increased last year and the fee structure being imposed on them this year is set to make things worse. Although the ZINASU national executive has already endorsed plans for the class boycott several of its leaders remained mum on when it will begin. The obvious plan seems to be not to give too much away to state security agents, who have a habit of brutally suppressing any protests.
The decision to have a class boycott comes in the same week that a stay away called by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions received a lukewarm response from workers in a country with over 80 percent unemployment and high levels of intimidation. Students remain a viable platform of protest and this observers say, explains the special attention they are getting from the state. The boycott by the students will be accompanied by demonstrations on campus, according to union leaders. Students are grappling with a host of problems from accommodation, inadequate funding, poor food standards in the canteens and state sponsored harassment, intimidation and torture for those perceived to be active in organising protests.
ZINASU Secretary General Beloved Chiweshe told Newsreel government is practising double standards in proclaiming it was slashing prices of basic commodities and yet is raising tuition fees for students. He says students feel a class boycott at the moment is the least 'taxing' option students can exercise, given the high levels of repression. Chiweshe says the union wants to ensure the world knows things are not okay in Zimbabwe, contrary to what Mugabe and his government are trying to portray.
This week state agents assaulted University of Zimbabwe student union President Lovemore Chinoputsa and his Secretary General, Fortune Chamba, before arresting them during a demonstration Tuesday on campus. Students were protesting a decision not to reopen halls of residence, shut down last semester as part of attempts to keep a lid on student protests. Over 4000 students are affected and currently struggling to find accommodation in the capital.
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