The Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee (Jomic) in Matabeleland North is investigating allegations that some soldiers and police officers barred an MDC activist from working at a school in Binga because of his party links.
Staff Reporter
MDC Matabeleland North provincial chairman, who is also the Jomic chairperson for the month of February, Jealous Sansole, yesterday confirmed the matter saying the organisation had deployed a team to investigate the matter.
He said the man, Shadreck Mtale, who is employed as a guard at a school in Siabuwa, was approached by some members of the police and army last week to stop working saying the school belonged to Zanu PF.
“The man was a member of Zanu PF and crossed the floor when we were conducting rallies in the area,” Sansole said.
“He was then elected ward chairperson for Nabusenga Ward and started attracting Zanu PF members into (his new) party which did not go down well with the party.
“There are members of the army in the area who are locals who were released from barracks. They then approached the school development council (SDC) and demanded that Mtale be fired.
“The SDC chairperson resisted, but last week the soldiers teamed up with police and told Mtale to stop coming to a Zanu PF school.”
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Sansole said the police had summoned Mtale to visit the police station yesterday saying, “the team went there to do interviews and investigate the matter”.
“The harassment has been going on for a long time and it is only last week that Mtale was finally made to stop coming to work,” he said. “There are reports dating back from the time the harassment started right until the time Mtale was made to stop reporting for duty.”
He said the school staff had been harassed since 2002 by members of the army and police resulting in some teachers fleeing the school. Efforts to get a comment from the police and the army were in vain at the time of going to print last night.
