The Collective Students Union (CSU) has claimed that the United States Embassy in Harare persuaded its members to protest against the government.
CSU which is said to be an amalgamation of major students’ unions in the country – ZINASU and ZICOSU, says members were, in turn, to be given visas to travel to America and scholarships
Representing the Collective Students Union during a press conference in Harare this Tuesday, Kumbirai Mutengu said:
We would like to share this information based on an encounter that one of us here has had with the American embassy. Let it be known that there is a student desk from which Zimbabweans are employed by the US embassy to coordinate programmes together with some black foreigners whom you can’t even suspect that they are foreigners.
At one point some of us were invited to the embassy and given a mission to stage a series of demonstrations that are meant to provoke security forces to react and result in clashes that will paint Zimbabwe as an unstable nation which is in deep crisis. In return for this, we have been promised visas to travel to America and scholarships.
This is happening when state security officers have been accused of kidnapping, torturing and brutalising the citizenry, mainly, government critics who include opposition activists, human rights defenders and journalists.
Authorities dismiss the reports of human rights violations saying they are fabricated by enemies of the state who wish to soil the image of the state.
More: ZBC News