Five More UZ Students Arrested Over Demonstration
Police arrested five more University of Zimbabwe (UZ) students on Wednesday in connection with demonstrations against tuition fee hikes that took place on Monday at the Mt Pleasant campus.
The five are Tinovimba Musengi, Hazel Gwande, Purpose Mangana, Tanyaradzwa Nzvimbo and Charles Moyo.
They were detained at Avondale Police Station pending their court appearance.
On Monday, 16 students were arrested for allegedly participating in the demonstration.
The Students’ Representative Council (SRC) leader, Allan Chipoyi told NewZimbabwe.com that the 16 have since been freed. Said Chipoyi:
Since Monday, police have been looking for the organisers of the demonstration that happened and they arrested 16 students who have so far been freed.
Today some students were trying to stop others from attending classes as they had agreed that they are staying home, and no one must attend lectures until the issue has been addressed.
The police and UZ security started chasing away students and that is when the five students got arrested.
It is unfair as no one knows if they were part of those who were trying to stop others or not.
UZ recently increased undergraduate fees to between Z$300 000 and Z$500 000, up from Z$50 000, while some Master’s degree programme tuition fees were increased to close to Z$1 million.
Chipoyi called for dialogue between students and the university administration on the way forward. He said:
The administration must understand that our parents are peasants and they do not afford such huge amounts of fees.
We need dialogue with the administration on the way forward so we can agree on a more reasonable amount.
