Student assaulted while campaigning for SRC election

A member of the Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU) was forcibly taken from the Chinhoyi University of Technology (CUT) by unidentified individuals on Monday night, 11 December.

Valentine Ziko, according to his own testimony, was blindfolded, bundled into a car and taken to an unknown location where he was assaulted and tortured before being dumped near a bridge in Chinhoyi town. Ziko is a fourth-year student from the Harare Polytechnic who travelled to CUT to assist ZINASU with its campaign

ZINASU, the biggest students’ union in Zimbabwe, alleged that government forces were involved in the incident ahead of the election on 13 December.

However, Tawanda Sengerai, who is vying for the portfolio of treasurer general in the CUT election under the banner of the Zimbabwe Congress of Student Unions, said the union's campaign was going well and it has not faced any difficulties.

Police raid

According to Ziko, police raided CUT late on Monday while students were campaigning for an upcoming Student Representative Council (SRC) election.

“A melee soon ensued as students attempted to make good their escape. It was during this scuffle that a group of people appeared from nowhere and started manhandling me. They blindfolded me and carried me to a car,” said Ziko.

“Once they had me in the car, they started beating me before they drove me to some place I don’t know. When we arrived at the unknown location, they took me out of the car and made me lie down on a lawn before they started spraying me with water from a hose pipe. They sprayed water all over my body and started beating me again.”

‘Where are your colleagues?’

Throughout his ordeal, Ziko said the unidentified men kept asking him about the whereabouts of fellow members of his students’ union and some of the organisation’s candidates for the SRC election.

Ziko said the unidentified men also quizzed him on why he was a member of ZINASU. ZINASU is a student movement that is constantly at loggerheads with the government.

“After they beat me for several minutes,” said Ziko, “they took me and left me near a bridge. They took my phone, bag and money.”

Ziko, who spoke to University World News a few hours after the abduction, said that he was in pain.

“The entire right side of my face, including my cheek and ear, is very sore,” he said, adding that members of his organisation face regular cases of intimidation and persecution, but didn’t specify the perpetrator.

Allegations of government involvement

The Zimbabwe National Students Union has condemned the abduction as “draconian”, and alleges state involvement.

Speaking to University World News, ZINASU spokesperson Lifeline Guta said: “Ziko was blindfolded, so we don’t know exactly who abducted him but, looking at events and just backtracking from what has been happening all along, we suspect that the state has something to do with the abduction.

“The law enforcement agents they [the government] send to the universities are the ones who are now abusing students so, basically, the state is involved vicariously.”

Government interference in student elections

Guta said the government was interfering in student affairs. Said Guta: “It’s saddening how [university] administrations and the government, through its instruments and apparatus such as the police, are interfering in student affairs. It’s almost as if they want to disturb student elections at all costs.

“The CUT administration gave us a chance to campaign. We were doing our campaigns. We were singing, nothing was vandalised, but still they [administration] invited the police. There was no need for police.”

Guta said the government was using tactics it uses to deal with adversaries at a national level in student politics. Guta, however, said student politics was “separate” from national politics and the two should not be treated in the same manner.

A spate of abductions

Several abductions have been reported in Zimbabwe this year. At least five political activists have been abducted in Zimbabwe since August. One of the activists, Tapfumaneyi Masaya, was found dead a few days after he was abducted from a high-density suburb.

Like Ziko, Masaya was also abducted during the heat of a political campaign and bundled into a car, local media reported.

Others who have recently been abducted include Womberaishe Nhende, Takudzwa Ngadziore and James Chidhakwa.

ZINASU, the organisation Ziko belongs to, has close links to Zimbabwe’s main opposition party, The Citizens Coalition for Change.