The NUST students sustained injuries after ZRP officers set dogs upon them as police officers blocked
a demonstration staged by the university students on Monday 26 February 2018 as they called the
university authorities and the government to end the work boycott by lecturers at the institution.
In response to the protest, the ZRP officers rounded up the protesting students and detained them at
Bulawayo Central Police Station after rolling out water cannons to suppress the students’
demonstration.
After the students’ arrest, ZLHR deployed its team of lawyers including Cynthia Nunu and Nosimilo
Chanayiwa to offer emergency legal support services to 69 students, who were rounded up by ZRP
officers and detained at Bulawayo Central Police Station, where police officers deliberated on charging
the students with criminal nuisance or disorderly conduct as defined in the Criminal Law (Codification
and Reform) Act.
Although ZLHR lawyers had advised the students about the consequences of paying admission of
guilty fines, they proceeded to pay some admission of guilty fines after admitting to committing the
charge of disorderly conduct as defined in Section 41 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act
and they were all released late on Monday 26 February 2018.
Prior to the release of the students, ZLHR lawyers had earlier requested that they be released to allow
them to access medical treatment for the dog bites, a request which the ZRP officers did not entertain.
By late Monday evening, some of the 18 injured students had started accessing treatment at some
medical facilities offered by ZLHR’s partners in the country’s second largest city.