ANGRY parents stormed Kuwadzana 3 Primary School in Harare yesterday demanding the resignation of the headmistress, only identified as Gunje, after a satanism scare rocked the council-run institution, sending pupils into a frenzy after they developed some mysterious skin rash.
BY BLESSED MHLANGA STAFF REPORTER
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Classes came to a standstill and riot police later intervened as the parents also demanded closure of the school to pave way for a cleansing ceremony after four pupils were affected last week.
The parents also demanded that a Grade Four pupil blamed for the satanism attack be removed from the school.
“We want the headmistress to be removed from this school because she failed to deal reasonably with this matter and if that child remains at the school, we will pull out our children,” one parent, Patience Chidza, said.
Gunje confirmed the bizarre incident at an impromptu parents’ meeting chaired by Kuwadzana MP Nelson Chamisa.
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Some of pupils reportedly developed “a mysterious rash and change of skin colour”.
“These are the things I was later told by the affected pupils because I was not there, I called the District Education Officer and I was told to call the police who have since taken over the investigations, “ Gunje said.
Ward 37 councillor Urayai Mangwiro said parents now feared for the safety of their children following the scare.
“The challenge now that is the father of the affected or possessed pupil has refused to remove his daughter from the school and the [Primary Education] ministry policy does not allow us to expel her yet other parents no longer want their children in the same class or school with her,” he said.
Chamisa appealed to parents not to victimise the child, but to help her heal.
Contacted for comment, Harare provincial education director Edward Shumba said the situation normalised following Chamisa’s address and implored parents to avoid disrupting learning based on superstition.
“The position of the ministry is that we cannot be closing the school on a mystery which is bordering on superstition,” he said.
“We can only act and close the school when we have scientific evidence, but the school is running properly as we speak,” Shumba said.
