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Armed police seal off three campuses

    JOHANNESBURG

    Heavily armed policemen barred students from three tertiary institutions in Harare from marching into the city at the weekend to protest against the privatisation of catering services and to demand an increase on Vocational Training Loans (VTL), the ‘Daily News’ reported on Monday. The students at the Harare Institute of Technology, Belvedere Teachers’ Training College (BTTC) and the Harare Polytechnic College could not move out of their colleges into the city after the police sealed the main gates.

    Itai Zimunya, the vice-president of the Zimbabwe National Students Union, (ZINASU) said the police were armed with guns and teargas canisters and students were not allowed in or out of the colleges. He added that in Chitungwiza, 54 students from Seke Teachers’ College were arrested and made to pay admission of guilt fines for malicious injury to property and public disorder.

    Tinashe Chimedza, ZINASU’s secretary-general, was detained for five hours on Wednesday and was only released after the intervention of his lawyer. Chimedza had addressed students who had marched to the state-run ‘Herald’ newspaper office calling on the paper to report the students’ strike accurately. Students have gone on an indefinite strike countrywide calling for a review of the VTL’s and the scrapping of privatisation of catering services.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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