National University of Science and Technology (NUST) students have staged a demonstration today demanding an end to the lecturers’ strike.
NUST lecturers in Bulawayo have been on strike for almost four weeks now as a show of defiance against what they call the maladministration of the institution.
The protesting learners stormed the university’s Selbourne Park suburb campus and used boulders and thorny tree branches to block the road and the university’s entrance gates.
The university had to call the anti-riot police unit to disperse angry students.
However, NUST spokesperson Felix Moyo said the university and striking lecturers had reached a compromise and lecturers would resume tomorrow.
“NUST council, management and lecturers’ union have reached a consensus. Lectures will commence tomorrow (Tuesday),” he said.
Student leader, Tinashe Munaiwa, who is the university’s minister of student affairs, said dialogue between the students’ representative council, administration, and NUST Educators Association had failed to address the situation, and as such, confrontation became the best cure at their disposal.
“When the ordinary becomes extra-ordinary, fearless confrontation becomes the sole option at our disposal,” he said.
This year has started on a bad note for students in Universities and poly technics in Zimbabwe, starting with the increment in fees and strikes by lecturers. This has resulted in government removing the first year March intake this year
