University student arrested over offensive tribal tweets

 

A 24-year-old student of National University of Science and Technology (NUST) in Zimbabwe has been remanded in police custody over hateful tribal tweets he made against people from a particular tribe in the country called Ndebele.

The final-year Civil and Water Engineering student identified as Tanaka Ryan Ziso was arraigned before Bulawayo Magistrate Maxwell Ncube to answer for charges of causing harm to persons of a particular race. He has been remanded in custody until 2 April 2024.

It was gathered that on March 13, 2024, Tanaka Ryan Ziso, who uses the handle ‘The Royal Priest of Chitungwiza’ (@iamryantanaka) in X, stirred up controversy by posting a demeaning and hateful tribal message directed towards the Ndebele people.

His post triggered a firestorm on social media as netizens found his tweet quite offensive and insulting. Riding on the wave, Tanaka continued to post more offensive comments, which drew both criticism and support from different social media users.

After facing heavy criticism, he later issued an apology. However, his apology failed to impress social media users, who argued that it was insincere. Netizens argued that he only apologized due to the mounting criticism and called for him to be expelled from NUST University.