Teacher sleeps in the open for 6 days

A teacher from Zaka will rue the day he decided to transfer to another school, after he was forced to sleep in the open for six days as school head refused to accept him saying his place had already been taken by someone.

Sources privy to the incident said  Israel Dube processed his transfer from Machiva to Panganai Primary School earlier this year and was supposed to assume duty in June, but failed to do so because of the Covid-19 induced lockdown.

He however, managed to process the assumption of duty with the school deputy head but could not move in because schools were closed.

"He went and did the assumption of duty process with the school deputy head but he could not move to this school because of temporary school closure cause by the lockdown. When he finally went to the school, the Head told him that there was no place for him saying it had already been filled by someone who had been referred from head office," said the source.

The School Head is alleged to have instructed other teachers not to house him and he was left stranded since he had no money to transport his belongings back to Machiva.

"He had no money to take back his belongings; he had to put up at the verandah on one of the houses at teachers' cottages where he slept for six days with his all his belongings.

"Luckily he had not traveled with his wife and kids since he wanted to settle in first before they come. He was rescued by a delegation of district inspectors who had gone to the school for routine inspections," said the source.

It is alleged that the Inspectors called Zaka District Schools Inspector (DSI) Samson Chidzurira who then asked them to pack his belongings in their car and accompany him back to Machiva his previous school.

Other sources said the problem started with the centralised recruitment system, which was introduced where all the recruitment processes were done at the head office.

"The recruitment process is now centralised in Harare at the head office, district and provincial offices can only deal with transfers and other related issues. So because of corruption which is prevalent in the process, people from the head office just send people mostly their relatives who would come for only one year probation period before going back to their respective home areas," said another source.

However, Panganai Primary School Head Sylvia Mangezi refuted allegations that they denied him temporary accommodation saying he was offered one but he refused.

"We did not deny him temporary accommodation. We refereed him to the deputy head's house who invited him to put up in his house but he refused," said Mangezi.

When contacted for comment, Zaka DSI Chidzurira said he was not aware that he had been sleeping outside saying he only know that someone referred by the head office had occupied his place and they had to reverse he transfer.

"We had transferred him to that school because of some issues; however, his place was taken by someone who came from head office. So when I learnt about the issue I had to send a car to take him back to Machiva and that is where he is now," said Chidzurira