Terrence Ndowora
A
Gokomere High School pupil is recovering from a dislocated shoulder after a
savage assault by mission guards who accused him and others of being in the wrong
class at the wrong time, TellZim can report.
It
is, however, the brutality with which the corporal punishment was meted out on form
six pupil Tino Mashava which has seen some parents calling for the guards to be
held to account.
Gokomere
Mission priest-in-charge Fr James Magadzire did not pick the many calls on his
cellphone while school head Aquanos Mazhunga professed ignorance of the case.
“I
didn’t know that such incident happened at the school. I will have to confirm
with the others and come back to you,” said Mazhunga but he never did.
Many
sources, however, said it was Mazhunga’s usual way of avoiding explaining issues
that are inconvenient to him.
Circumstances
are that the Statistics subject, which is compulsory for the class, was not on
the timetable, and some teachers organised that one of them would take the
class after hours so that pupils do not miss out.
On
April 15, one teacher took the pupils to the dining hall for the Statistics
lesson but they were later interrupted by mission guards and some school
authorities who ordered that the pupils be beaten right in front of their
teacher for conducting lessons at the wrong time and place.
“The
whole class was subjected to severe corporal punishment which saw one of the
pupils Tino Mushava dislocating his shoulder. The school authorities tried to
sweep the matter under the carpet but they failed because the injuries required
the doctor’s attention which the mission clinic could not give,” said a source.
The
school head and the priest-in-charge are said to have persuaded Tino’s parents
not to take the case forward, with promises that the school would foot his
medical bills but they had not fulfilled their promise by
the time of going to press.
Meanwhile,
Tino has accrued hundreds of US dollars in medical costs as he is being
attended to by a private doctor in Masvingo.
His
mother Vimbai Mashava refused to talk about the issue, referring TellZim back
to Mazhunga and Magadzire.
