Fresh problems rock Plumtree High School

News Day

By Silas Nkala

15 March 2013

SOME parents with children at Plumtree High School have reportedly written to Education, Sport, Arts and Culture minister David Coltart demanding an investigation into alleged cases of financial mismanagement at the school.

The letter was copied to Matabeleland South provincial education director Tumisang Thabela.

Coltart yesterday told Newsday he had not yet received the letter, but confirmed receiving several complaints from the school over the past two years.

“I have not yet received the letter you are talking about, but over the last two years I have received a variety of such reports concerning the school,” he said.

“This happens at a time when the school is in a process of being turned into an academy.”

The latest allegations stemmed from the alleged illegal withdrawals of $8 800 from the school’s bus levy account by the school development committee (SDC) led by Fletcher Velempini and acting headmaster Mathumulo Nare, to buy a twincab truck from South Africa to use by the headmaster.

“We have asked Coltart and Thabela to probe the suspected misuse of funds by the Plumtree High School administration and SDC,” a parent who declined to be named said.

“Parents were recently made to contribute $100 each as a special levy for payment of a Zesa bill and for the purchase of a school bus. But instead, $8 800 was used to purchase a Nissa truck registration ACR 3698 being used by Nare.”

The school is also reported to have received $32 000 from the Zimbabwe Statistical Agency that used the school as a camping venue for enumerators in the last census. The parents claimed they had not yet been briefed about the money.

Contacted for comment, Velempini said he was not aware of a letter written to Coltart.

“At the moment I am at the referendum preparations. Why don’t you call me next week? But I do not know what you are talking about,” he said.

Nare was not reachable for comment yesterday while Thabela was not in her office when contacted for comment.

The fresh row at the school comes a year after the previous school administration led by headmaster Prince Mange and former SDC chairman Elson Shava, was removed from office after parents complained over alleged misuse of funds.

Parents were accusing the administration and the SDC of not paying school fees for their children at the institution, thereby prejudicing the school of $8 300 per term.

Police in Plumtree are investigating a case of fraud involving an undisclosed amount of money at the same school which the authorities allegedly did not remit to the National Employment Council for Welfare and Education Institutions for the past 16 months as workers’ subscriptions.