Staff Reporter
University of Zimbabwe (UZ) student representatives have been accused of being double faced as they had been consulted and agreed to the recent fees hikes approved by that institution before summersaulting to blame the University of being inconsiderate to the students’ plight.
Last week, the UZ hiked fees from an average ZW$60 000 per semester to half a million Zimbabwean dollars (ZW$500 000).
The students led by the Students Representative Council (SRC) president, Allan Chipoyi staged a demonstration at the campus this Monday and declared that they would not attend lectures until the fees were reduced to acceptable levels.
Investigations by this publication revealed that the UZ SRC leaderhip was only using the fees issue to grandstand as they had appended their signatures to the fees increment document to show that they approved the hike.
A source at the UZ who spoke to this publication on condition of anonymity said that students were surprised to see the SRC leaders at the forefront of the fees protests when they failed to object to the hike during the negotiations.
“We were surprised to see the SRC leading students in protests but they were in the meeting that approved those fees. The SRC president Chipoyi, his deputy Darlington Chiwa and the secretary general, Cuthbert Masiiwa all consented to the fees hikes,” said the source.
The same source added that the SRC was led by double faced people who were only after their own interests.
“The SRC is led by double faced people. They are not genuinely fighting on behalf of the students. These fees hikes don’t affect them because they don’t pay tuition fees by virtue of them being SRC members,” added the source.
The UZ acting Registrar General, Dr Munyaradzi Madambi has confirmed that the fees hikes were a product of consultation between the University and its stakeholders, including the students.
Meanwhile, there are reports that Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) has hijacked the fees protests at UZ and has been clandestinely holding meetings with Chipoyi urging him to sustain the protests in a bid to tarnish the image of the University Chancellor, President Mnangagwa.
