Mliswa seeks to unite students

Former Hurungwe West legislator Temba Mliswa is moving in to unite the two main students' unions that have for years been linked to either Zanu-PF or opposition MDC-T, it has emerged.

Mliswa, who is the Youth Advocacy for Reform and Democracy (Yard) founder, met the executives of Zimbabwe National Students Union (Zinasu) and Zimbabwe Congress of Students Union (Zicosu) at a meeting in Harare yesterday where they agreed to form one apolitical students body.

Zinasu has links with the opposition while Zicosu is aligned to Zanu-PF.

Zicosu interim president Howard Madya said his wish was to see the students' bodies disassociating themselves from any political party.

"We no longer want to be controlled by any political party. The politicians want to advance their political agendas," he said. "We no longer want to report to CIOs or Zanu-PF or MDC."

Mliswa said Yard would facilitate the formation of an independent students union.

"Students are so much politically aligned, such that they have ceased to represent the wishes of the students but their political masters," he said.

Former University of Zimbabwe SRC president Gift Ositelo Siziba also said the move to form an independent students body was at an advance stage.

"We are going countrywide to all universities saying let's move away from being pawns of political masters. Let us be students and not to report to political players," he said.