GUTU — A 37-year-old visually impaired man who assaulted a school head with his walking stick in a row over the allocation of the government’s Basic Education Assistance Model (Beam) fund was lucky to escape jail last week, after a magistrate warned and cautioned him.
Innocent Mharadze of Vazuka village in Gadzingo communal lands severely assaulted Chidembo Primary School headmaster Frackson Mukaro with his walking stick, accusing him of excluding his brother’s children from the fund.
Mharadze last week appeared before Gutu resident magistrate Nyasha Vitorini facing assault charges. Vhitorini, however, warned and cautioned him after he had pleaded guilty to the charge.
He begged the court to spare him jail on the basis that he was visually impaired and that he survived on begging to look after his brother’s children.
Prosecuting, Agatha Gabriel told the court that on March 20 this year, Mharadze stormed into the headmaster’s office at Chidembo school and accused him of sidelining his brother’s two children from the Beam fund.
Efforts to convince him that his brother’s children did not fall into the beneficiaries category and that he was not the sole custodian of the fund, fell on deaf ears as Mharadze accused the school head of favouritism.
A day later, Mharadze returned to the school with his wife where the school development committee involved in the selection process had a meeting in Mukaro’s office.
The committee told him that his brother’s children did not fall into the category of beneficiaries as their parents were alive.
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After failing to stomach the facts, Mharadze started assaulting Mukaro with his walking stick, forcing the meeting to end abruptly.
His wife, however, restrained him upon seeing that the school head had been severely assaulted. A report was made at Gutu Police Station, leading to Mharadze’s arrest.
