Harare- A massive sodomy scandal threatens the pristine image of one of Harare’s elite learning institutions, Heritage Infant School, located in the leafy suburb of Borrowdale in Harare.
The matter was unearthed following disciplinary action taken against two learners in a matter dating back to late 2022.
Sources privy to the case told this publication that school authorities were handling everything in secrecy to the extent that parents of the affected children had not been supplied adequate information.
The sexual abuse allegations stem from a 2022 incident which happened during the last school term when a Grade 4 pupil (name supplied) told his parents about the sexual abuse.
The parents took up the matter with the boarding master who escalated the issue to the school’s head matron identified as Ms Jiri.
“The ‘abused’ child said a lot of other children were involved as well. This term (2023), the boy that was accused apparently is no longer at the school. Surprisingly, the parents of the abused boy never got any communication or feedback about the issue,” said the source.
This publication learnt that the victim in this case was recently forced to become a day scholar by the school, a logistical nightmare for the parents.
“We would like to know what happened with this case and generally what is happening at this school as it seems this is not an isolated case,” added the source.
“We understand that these affected kids were made to write incident reports without parental supervision. Who does that to nine or ten-year-olds?”
This publication sought an interview with the school head identified as Mr B Mate last week, who said a comment on the vile issue would be provided by the board today (Wednesday), after its members had reportedly left the country for South Africa during the recent exit weekend.
Come Wednesday, Mate introduced this reporter to a male and a female who were said to be board members. However, the alleged board members refused to identify themselves adding that they were not allowed to provide such information to the media.
They went further, threatening legal action if the allegations were ever published.
“We protect our learners, we only provide the information to the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education as well as and the parents of the learners. Unless you want to defame us, you can go ahead. Definitely we are going to respond to that if you publish the story,” said an official claiming to be a board member.
Efforts to get a comment from the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education were fruitless.
Heritage School officials who declined to be named for fear of retribution said thorough investigations were required to get to the bottom of the issue.
“The school is just acting in a way that protects their image and elite status and are not considering the impact this has on pupils.
“We understand that the pupils have had to go through counselling at their own expense. The ministry (of primary and secondary education) needs to do something about cases such as these.”
