News / National
Non-Ndebele teacher protesters want case referred to ConCourt
29 Sep 2016 at 09:34hrs | Views
Four Lupane villagers, who three months ago stormed Mlamuli Secondary School demanding the immediate transfer of a non-Ndebele-speaking headmistress from the institution, have filed for referral of their case to the Constitutional Court challenging the public violence charge levelled against them.
They are School Development Committee (SDC) chairperson, Mbuso Nkomo, Mbonisi Khoza, Peter Ndlovu and Thabani Sibanda.
Through their lawyer Dumisani Dube, the quartet, in an application filed before Lupane magistrate Ndumo Masuku, last week argued they were constitutionally entitled to demonstrate.
Masuku remanded the matter to October 4 for ruling on the application.
"This is an application in terms of section 175(4) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe for referral of this matter to the Constitutional Court for the determination of whether or not this prosecution of the accused persons is not a violation of their constitutional rights, freedom of assembly and association as enshrined in section 58 (1), freedom to demonstrate and petition as enshrined in section 59, freedom of conscience as enshrined in section 60, language and culture as enshrined in section 63 and political rights as enshrined in section 67(2)(d) of the Constitution," they submitted.
The four also ordered the pupils to go home.
They submitted that on January 28, 2016, an SDC meeting held at the school resolved to petition the Primary and Secondary Education ministry to stop deploying non-Ndebele teachers in the area.
They said on June 23, the SDC met again and resolved that on June 27, parents should stop sending their children to the school until Bonyongwe was transferred.
Four days later, Nkomo allegedly teamed up with three villagers and confronted Bonyongwe, ordering her to immediately leave the school.
Source - newsday
