ONE of Harare’s most prestigious private schools and one of the most expensive in the country, Eaglesvale, has gone bankrupt shortly after its headmaster and a standing member of President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF party, Naison Tirivavi allegedly took sole control of the school administration.
Tirivavi was reportedly suspended last year, but bounced back and allegedly fired the same board which was investigating him for alleged misappropriation of school funds and assets.
The elite school, which is owned by the Dutch Reformed Church, was then scrambled with the assistance of Zanu PF officials, and finally seized early this year under government’s indigenisation programme.
Sources said Tirivavi announced on Monday that the school was no longer able to pay general workers’ full wages and proposed a cut on their working hours.
This was so despite the fact that the school charges up to $3 600 per student each term. The fee structure is as follows: boarding $3 600, day high school $2 300 and junior school $1 450 per term.
After overturning his own suspension early this year, Tirivavi returned to work and allegedly conducted a ceremony where he announced the school was now be indigenised because of the Dutch Reformed Church’s foreign origin.
The ceremony was attended by Local Government minister Ignatius Chombo, Education minister Lazarus Dokora and Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa.
Despite an ongoing Supreme Court challenge by the Dutch Reformed Church board, Tirivavi has reportedly declared that the school was now under “The Reformed Church of Zimbabwe”. – Zim-Eye
