Students stay away to protest fee hikes, cost of living

Whereas student leaders claimed that members heeded a call to stay away from classes on 9 May as part of wider protests against the rising costs of living, including hikes in tuition fees, state media reported that it was business as usual in the country and that the stayaway was a flop.

In a statement published on Twitter, the Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU) claimed that the protest had been a success as many students did not show up at a number of campuses where armed security forces were present.

The Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe, the Council of Student Teachers and the Zimbabwe Professional Nurses Union all pledged full support for the stayaway protest and urged their members to withdraw their services on the day in separate statements.

The recent round of fees hikes from several Zimbabwean universities, battling the growing threat of inflation which now stands at 72.7% according to Trading Economics, is threatening to cause a fracas in Zimbabwe’s higher and tertiary education sectors and the country at large.

In mid-March 2022, the Zimbabwean police arrested 10 University of Zimbabwe (UZ) students for demonstrating against tuition and accommodation fees hikes. Subsequently, in April, during another protest, amid rumours that tuition fees had been hiked for the second time during one semester, a student, Comfort Mpofu, was arrested and held at Avondale Police Station overnight before being released on bail the next day.

UZ’s tuition fees which stood at around ZWL$19,000 (US$122) when the current semester began in February has now been increased to over ZWL$50,000 (US$322) while the accommodation fee which was around ZWL$30,000 (US$193) has been increased to almost ZWL$70,000 (US$452).

There have also been protests at the Midlands State University (MSU) where unregistered students were denied the opportunity to write exams.

The students have since petitioned the university, appealing for special exams after failing to get registered in time for the current semester.

The fees at MSU and the Harare Institute of Technology are reported to be over ZWL$70,000 while those at the Chinhoyi University of Technology are reported to be in the region of ZWL$80,000.

Students are saying that these fees are exorbitant and do not measure up to their parents’ salaries, the majority of whom are civil servants currently earning less than ZWL$30,000 a month.

To protest against rising expenses, students, in conjunction with teachers and nurses, called for a national shutdown on 9 May.

Discontent about economy

Speaking to University World News, ZINASU national spokesperson Lenon Mazuru said that the stayaway was meant to register the students’ discontent at the state of affairs in the country.

“As students, we are facing many challenges. Many students are deferring their studies because their parents and guardians are failing to pay the high tuition fees and, if they continue to increase fees, more and more students will opt to defer or drop out,” said Mazuru.

President addresses the protesters

In the lead-up to the protests, President Emmerson Mnangagwa addressed the nation on 7 May and, among other things, reversed the government’s 2020 decision to ban private operators in the public transport industry. This was one of the demands of the protesters.

The Permanent Secretary in Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Professor Fanuel Tagwira, appealed to students to stop protesting against university fee hikes.

“If institutions decrease fees, the reality is that there will be no quality education to talk of. Already, since the fee hikes, there has been inflation and the fees they are paying now can only cover 70% of the institutions’ expenses.

“Government understands the students’ plight, but there needs to be consideration on how the fees came to be,” Tagwira said.

Parliament concerned

Members of the National Assembly in Zimbabwe have requested Professor Amon Murwira, the higher and tertiary education minister, to issue a ministerial statement in the House on the escalating fees charged to tertiary students.

Earlier, in April, Mbizo constituency member of parliament Settlement Chikwinya said in the National Assembly that various university students have been given notice to register for their examinations, but the notice was short and the fees too exorbitant for them to be able to raise the required amounts of registration fees in the given time.

“If one fails to register, they defer examinations – which is a departure from the norm where, previously, students were allowed to make a payment plan or at least sit for examinations and then fail to obtain results until they had paid for those examinations.”

“So, I move that the higher and tertiary education minister come to parliament at least with a ministerial statement as to why the rules have changed and, as parliament, we can have a national discourse around finding a solution which allows the students to pursue their educational careers without disturbance,” he said.

All USD values calculated at the official interbank rate of US$1: ZWL$152.