Murewa primary head, bursar, burn school to cover fraud

Desperate times calls for desperate actions, Zimbabweans were shocked today when they learnt that a Chemhondoro Primary School head and bursar had set ablaze their office in a bid to cover up fraud at the Murewa school.

The two have since been arrested.
The acting Chemhondoro School head Douglas Matonzi (55) and bursar Tendai Zambezi (28) are alleged to have connived to burn the school office to conceal cases of mismanagement of funds at the school.

When journalists visited the school, the head’s office had its roof blown up with asbestos debris littered all over while inside the office, were burnt papers, books and part of the furniture.

Mashonaland East provincial education director Mr Christopher Chihota confirmed the incident and said the head who was in an acting capacity will face disciplinary action despite the matter being held by the police.

Mashonaland East provincial police spokesperson Inspector Nobert Muzondo also confirmed the incident.

According to police on the 9^th of January, a team of internal auditors from government visited the school and carried out an audit on the school financial books.

Matonzi was then instructed by the auditors to make an announcement to school children to bring their school fees receipts dating back to 2009.

He was also instructed to obtain the school bank statement covering the same period.

Matonzi and Zambezi took the financial records which were being used by the auditors and placed them in the headmaster’s office.

At around 1945hours fire broke out in the headmaster’s office, and school teachers including the accused and other villagers rushed to the scene and put off the fire with sand buckets and water.

The police officers then discovered a purple container with petrol near the scene.
Zambezi was quizzed by the police officers and admitted that he had committed the offence in connivance with Matonzi.

The police officers searched Matonzi’s house and recovered stock asset register, furniture inventory register and cash amounting to $1,082 being school funds receipted from pupils.