Goblins terrorise school pupils

LARGER-than-life occurrences are happening in Muradzikwa Village under Chief Zimunya where goblins are said to be terrorising school children at Mabiya Primary School.

The pupils were reportedly dating the scary creatures in Blair toilets at the school. This prompted the school authorities to notify the community leadership about the hullabaloo.

When The Weekender visited the village on Monday morning, it was business as usual but school children interviewed said they saw strange "persons" in toilets a fortnight ago.

"Yes we occasionally saw things that look like people that would appear in the toilets. We then told our teachers. We don't know what exactly these things are but we were afraid," said one pupil whose identity cannot be revealed.

Said another pupil: "We were scared, but the things never harmed us."

The leadership led by village head Bright Munyama said several children in the village confirmed the strange happenings.

He said short and elderly men with long beard were seen at the toilets.

"Several school pupils told me that they saw the creatures several times and one of the children described the goblin as a short and elderly man with long beard. Another boy said he saw it climbing the tree and was holding a catapult.
Tinofanirwa kufamba because we should act fast and dig deeper into the matter. The school head also notified me with concern so as community leaders we will do something and ascertain where it is coming from," said Munyama.

He confirmed that such cases have been rife in the area especially when witch hunters popularly known as Tsikamutandas exposed several witches, particularly women, and burnt paraphernalia.

Mabiya Primary deputy school head Mr Israel Muranda said although the school children alerted them about the issue, they were yet to ascertain if it was true or not.

"Yes we heard about it from school children and we quickly informed the traditional leaders and our superiors. The traditional leaders said they would engage some traditional leaders since it was a matter that needed to be treated with caution," Mr Muranda said.

"The children said they would see the goblins in the toilet, but when we asked them whom exactly saw the goblins, no one would show up.

"It sounded like Chinese gospel, they could not prove what they said. Ever since we notified the traditional leaders, the issue has died down," said Mr Muranda before he referred the news crew to the provincial head office for further comments.

Efforts to get a comment from Mutare District Education Officer Nathaniel Machini were fruitless by the time the newspaper went to bed.