A call in the middle of the night
View Images of damage to University of Zimbabwe building
I received a call around 1.30am last Wednesday from friends who are studying and staying on campus at the University of Zimbabwe (UZ). “Please can you come and get us, we are stranded in Borrowdale. The university has been bombed,” so they said.
For a moment, I did not know what to do. I wondered if I should continue with my sleep or creep out of the blankets and help them. Having stayed on campus during my studies in Bulawayo, I know that if the riot police come, there is no time for explanations. You have to run for cover.
Luckily enough, I still had a few litres of fuel in my car and I decided to help them out.
On my way, I thought maybe I should pass through UZ and see for myself but I changed my mind fearing that I might come face to face with the police and they would ask me a lot of questions that I might not be able to answer.
There was very little traffic on my way to Sam Levy’s Village in Borrowdale where I was picking up my friends. As I approached the Village, there were a number of young men strolling around and I suspect they were also coming from UZ where they had run away from the ‘dreaded riot police’ who were said to have been called onto the campus.
I picked up four of my friends packing my Beetle tight and I made my way back home. As I tried to ask what happened there were a lot of theories which I just could not lace together.
The following morning, I took them back to UZ to see for myself what happened the previous night. A building which was once a dining hall was in ashes. The room had collapsed and all I could see were metal frames of desks and chairs that were being stored in this building that is less than 20 meters from one of the ladies hostels.
According to The Herald newspaper, there has been a spate of ‘terror bombings’. If this building was indeed bombed, it would the 11th one. And if it was a bomb whoever made it must have been knowing what they were doing.