Rampant sexual abuse at school

Standard

26 December 2010

By Nqaba Matshazi

Allegations of rampant child sexual abuse have hit Chimhau Government Secondary School in Murehwa, amid reports that one student has gone into hiding after being impregnated by a teacher.

Two pregnancies have been reported in recent months, with sexual abuse at the school being described as deep-rooted and widespread to the extent that it was affecting pupils’ progress.

According to a correspondence in our possession, the case has been taken up by the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture with the minister, David Coltart instructing the permanent secretary, Stephen Mahere to investigate the matter.

“Could you therefore, as a matter of urgency, ask the provincial education director responsible for Murehwa to investigate the matter and report back to you and please, let me have a report regarding the matter,” reads part of the letter from Coltart to Mahere.

The Education minister raised concern that the matter was affecting the pupils but nothing seemed to be done to address the issue.

Mahere also received a letter from Transparency International-Zimbabwe (TIZ), detailing the allegations and how the pupils had attempted to report the matter to both the police and school authorities, but on each occasion faced no joy.

TIZ programmes manager, Titus Gwemende said allegations of abuse were commonplace at the school with one of the teachers having been caught abusing a girl in his kitchen.

“One of the girls was being abused in a kitchen and members of the community had to come to her rescue,” he said. “This shows that even the community is aware of what is going on at the school.”

Gwemende said they had been provided names of two teachers who were abusing pupils but initial indications were that the scandal could be bigger than what they have.

He said in cases where the girls fell pregnant they were forced out of the education system so the crimes of the perpetrators would not come to light.
“One of the girls, a Lower Sixth pupil, has since gone into hiding and no one knows where she is,” Gwemende said. “The case was reported to the police but nothing was done.”

It is reported that teachers take advantage of pupils by calling them to their houses and asking them to do household chores and from there the abuse is initiated.

“As part of rape prevention strategies we have lobbied the Ministry of Education to ban the practice by teachers in rural areas of allocating their household chores to children,” Rita Mbatha, from Women’s Comfort Corner Trust, said. “Each year many children are sexually abused and most cases are never reported.”

Coltart said he was on leave and could not comment on the progress made in the investigations while Mahere was not reachable on his mobile.