HARARE – One student was arrested on Monday night after thousands of students protested at the University of Zimbabwe over a second fees increase in less than a month.
The Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU) said Comfort Mpofu was being held at Avondale Police Station.
Thousands of students converged in the main hall shouting #FeesMustFall. They later poured out into the university campus during the protest which went on late into the night.
Last month, 10 ZINASU leaders were arrested after another protest when the University of Zimbabwe raised fees by 163 percent. The university also more than doubled accommodation fees.
On Monday, the university announced a fresh fees increase from an average Z$40,000 to about Z$51,000.
In a statement, ZINASU said: “Increasing fees twice in a single semester is evil. #FeesMustFall shall remain the position of the union.”
The union’s leader Benon Ncube said the deployment of riot police on campus “is a wrong response” by the university’s management, adding: “The fees increment will attract a massive reaction from students.”
