We have noted with deep shock and anger a notice put up by the Midlands State University arbitrarily forcing poor students to defer their studies for having failed to meet registration requirements in this economic hell.

Even by MSU standards, this is not only inconsiderate and insincere but diabolically inhumane. This criminalization of poverty should not have seen the light of day, considering what ordinary students have been through already this semester.

We have paid humongous amounts of money for rentals (in some instances in foreign currency), forced to consume undeservedly expensive food which has made the clinic the most visited place on campus, to paying large for a medical aid plan that never delivers service beyond paracetamol. This was the last thing the students needed.

We demand that the Admin retracts this ill thought and insincere decision that should never have been. Let the students write exams like before and they surely shall pay. They have incurred far too big a cost for them to be sent away now.

We hope and are expecting in all sincerity a public retraction before Wednesday the 16th of October 14:00hrs, failure of which we shall seek refuge in the Constitution of Zimbabwe and explore all avenues therein to raise our displeasure and make our anger registered with clarity. If any student is chased out of a lecture, there surely shall not be a single lecture at MSU.

In pursuit of the right to accessible education.

For and on behalf of the Zimbabwe National Students Union Midlands Province