NCA activists and students arrested in separate protests in Harare and Bindura

AN estimated 50 National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) activists were arrested by the police in central Harare during a street protest calling for a new constitution in Zimbabwe.
The activists were arrested as protests over crippling tuition fees broke out at state universities around the country resulting in 19 Bindura University students also being thrown into the cells. The arrests bring the number of students detained over the fees demonstrations to at least 56.
Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU) president, Promise Mkwananzi, said two of the students in police custody were being denied medical treatment despite suffering serious injuries. One of those seriously injured in the police attacks is ZINASU secretary general Beloved Chiweshe.  ZINASU alleges the detained students are being denied proper food, accesses to their lawyers and medical treatment.
Speaking about the NCA arrests, Columbus Mavhunga, the information officer, said riot police had assaulted some of the demonstrating activists near Parliament.  Mavhunga said over 200 demonstrators had gone onto the streets demanding a new Constitution for the country. Singing and dancing on the streets, the activists distributed fliers around Nelson Mandela Avenue and the surrounding environment before being scatted by the police.

Mavhunga said the demonstration was part of the NCA’s campaigns to demand a home-grown Constitution while at the same time commemorating the first anniversary of Operation Murambatsvina which saw over one million people being displaced by the government last year. Operation Restore Order effectively took off on the 19th of May with police razing down homes across the country, apparently in a bid to pre-empt widespread demonstrations after parliamentary elections in which Zanu PF regained control of the 150-member Parliament House.

The demonstration clashed with a presidential motorcade near the Parliament building resulting in heavily armed riot police surrounding the activists who included a number of women. They were bundled into police vehicles and taken to Harare Central police station where they are awaiting for charges to be preferred against them. In Bindura students destroyed a computer laboratory and billions worth of equipment went up in smoke.
When asked how such confrontations like burning down a computer lab could help their cause? Mkwananzi responded, “If a government rebels against its own people the people rebel back. We are non violent… the government of the day has become violent, has denied us our right to meet and demonstrate peacefully… So we’ve got to resort to the measures which are available and basically follow those.”
He said the atmosphere at the institution is very tense. Riot police officers and youth militia are said to have camped there to intimidate the students. “Youth militia wearing ZANU PF t-shirts are singing and chanting ZANU PF slogans.”
Meanwhile, the 19 students who were arrested on Monday were remanded in custody to the 25th of May after they appeared in court on Thursday. They are currently at remand prison while the 20 who were arrested on Wednesday night are at Bindura police station.