Zimbabwe National Students Union petitioned justice minister Ziyambi Ziyambi to Release Its President
THE Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU) Thursday petitioned justice minister Ziyambi Ziyambi to release its incarcerated President Takudzwa Ngadziore from Harare Remand Prison.
Ngadziore has been languishing at Harare Remand Prison for the past 25 days.
This follows his arrest in Harare, some hundreds of metres away from Impala Car Rental premises.
The student rights activist was addressing the media when he got arrested.
Before his arrest, Ngadziore was assaulted and left for dead by unidentified men in full view of some police officers.
He was later charged with inciting public violence as well as violating his bail conditions for a case in which he got arrested in front of the same car rental company sometime before.
At the time, he and his colleagues were demanding the company to release information relating to the abduction of fellow student, Tawanda Muchehiwa in Bulawayo by suspected state security agents.
“We have made it clear in our petition that Takudzwa Ngadziore is innocent and is a victim of Zanu PF thuggery. He is a victim of state thuggery,” students union secretary general Tapiwanashe Chiriga told NewZimbabwe.com, just after submitting the petition to Ziyambi.
“As students, we have been persecuted by our own chancellor in the name of Emmerson Mnangagwa.
“As we speak today, since the beginning of the year, more than 30 students have been arrested for one charge or another. All relating to demonstration which itself is a constitutional right,” Chiriga said.
Chiriga said Ngadziore was being punished for demanding answers to Muchehiwa’s abduction.
Muchehiwa, a journalism student at Midlands State University, was abducted in Bulawayo on the eve of the foiled July 31 anti-corruption protest which had been called by opposition Transform Zimbabwe leader Jacob Ngarivhume.
Muchehiwa was held against his will by his captors for three days, the period he was allegedly assaulted and tortured for his political activism.
ZINASU national gender secretary Nancy Njenge who also formed the petitioning party to Ziyambi’s office, bemoaned the collapse of the justice delivery system in Zimbabwe.
“The courts, as usual, chose to ignore the victimisation and torture of Takudzwa Ngadziore and chose to keep him under their custody.
“This is the new norm in the Zimbabwean judiciary, as long as one speaks their mind out or express dissatisfaction in anything done by the government, they get abducted, tortured and unlawfully detained,” Njenge said.
Ngadziore’s bail application was heard Tuesday at the High Court with Justice Webster Giti reserving indefinitely his judgement.
