Like Kutama Secondary School near late former President Robert Mugabe's home, Mtetengwe Primary School, located about 21 kilometres outside Beitbridge, should have been a school of choice.
Located two kilometres away from Vice-President Kembo Mohadi and his former wife Senator Tambudzani Mohadi’s homesteads in Mtetengwe village, the school should have been a model.
Besides, it sits near a Zimbabwe National Roads Administration tollgate on the busy Bulawayo road and 10 kilometres as the crow flies from the flourishing Beitbridge Juicing plant, a Schweppes (Private) Limited multi-million-dollar company whose workforce’s children learn at the school.
A few kilometres up west lies the Zhovhe Leisure Park next to the Zhovhe Dam accessed through branching off the country’s second largest animal sanctuary at Bubye Valley Conservancy which spins millions of dollars through wildlife activities.
Mtetengwe is close to several citrus estates at Nottingham, Bishopstone, Benfer or Toppick which draw their workforce from the school where 76 Grade Six and 42 Grade 7 pupils learn from a staffroom.
At the onset of its project, Beitbridge-Bulawayo Railways (BBR) adopted the school and undertook to maintain it as part of its corporate social responsibility, an undertaking long ignored.
"I cannot comment on the situation for now. Just send me the pictures and let me see," an official at BBR told NewsDay.
A teacher at the school said: “Our examination class is learning from outside. We are desperate and we have been like this for a long time. We have 76 Grade 6 and 42 Grade 7 students.
- Mohadis, BBR ‘ignore’ desperate Mtetengwe school
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“As you are aware we are not allowed to speak to the Press and this is all we can say."
School Development Committee members were not reachable.
Elias Chibi, who comes from the same village with Vice-President Mohadi, said their school's state was embarrassing.
"We should be in a better place. Our school is just metres from an international road and in the vicinity of some of the country’s biggest money spinners like the Bubye Valley Conservancy. I even blame us as the local community. We must be able to pool resources and take care of our school. I have no children going there but social investment includes taking party in such activities like school development, I am embarrassed," he said.
The classrooms had sections of their roofs blown off and their floors are weathering away.
In 2004, Mugabe donated two latest model buses to Kutama Secondary School in his home village.
The previous year in 2003 Mugabe and Chikambi villagers near his rural home in Kutama met to discuss progress made in the construction of a school in their area.
He made history when in a clear case of participatory development, he spent the whole day listening to and sharing concerns with parents with children at Kutama Day Secondary School which he helped to source funds for its upgrading.
On November 20 last year, Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga opened a 240-student private boarding school in his home district of Hwedza.
The school called Northend High started operating this year.
Mtetengwe requires far less than US$10 000 for renovations.
