Headmistress of Chinotimba Primary School in Victoria Falls, Thandiwe Mathema, faces allegations from parents of nepotism and mistreatment of teachers, reportedly assigning them tasks such as sweeping the premises before classes.
Parents who spoke to CITE, also claimed the headmistress has clashed with the School Development Committee (SDC) and pressures learners into manual labour, with children allegedly working from 7:30am to 10am
Mathema, new to the school, has reportedly created a tense environment affecting teachers, students and the SDC.
“The headmistress has fallen out with the SDC because she is a bully. She bullies teachers, yet is new at the school, having transferred from another school. Chinotimba Primary School is one of the largest schools in Victoria Falls,” said one parent who claimed their children were also not spared from her bullying.
“She also abuses learners as the children spent mostly two hours working outside.”
Parents allege that Mathema often makes female teachers sweep the schoolyard under her supervision.
“She insists that teachers pick up litter and verbally abuses those who don’t comply. Mathema is autocratic and doesn’t like any opinion from someone including the deputy head,” said a parent.
“At one time, a grade three pupil fell off a window as she was trying to clean it since the headmistress always insists on cleanliness. The grade three pupil sustained a deep cut on the thigh and her parents came to school fuming, which did not go down well with the SDC.”
Concerns have also been raised over how the headmistress bypasses procurement procedures.
According to parents, Mathema bypassed standard procedures by disregarding an SDC-approved bidder for firewood transportation, instead selecting her husband’s unlisted bid and personally presenting his quotation.
“When the procurement committee sat down, they selected a person with a truck to ferry firewood for the school, there were three bidders as per the requirements and the SDC selected one with the lowest value. However, the headmistress said she could not pay the truck and insisted that her husband should ferry firewood,” said another parent.
“But there was no quotation from her husband and Mathema herself wrote the quotation, and gave it to the procurement committee. The headmistress told the procurement committee that the person on behind the quotation will provide the firewood and told them to facilitate the payment yet it was her husband.”
The parents noted that her conduct was in breach of procurement procedures and was “also criminal in nature because of nepotism.”
Parents also allege that Mathema appointed her sister to cover for a teacher on maternity leave, ignoring the Ministry of Education’s hiring guidelines.
“Instead of hiring a temporary teacher or a relief teacher from the Public Service Commission database, Mathema brought her own young sister who is not even qualified to teach. When she was advised by the SDC that the replacement was not a professional, she exchanged harsher words with the SDC committee,” the parents said.
“This led to the SDC writing a petition to the District Schools Inspectorate (DSI), who then sent a delegation last week to find out about the headmistress’s behaviour from teachers.”
SDC Chairman, Bhekimpilo Tshongwe confirmed the allegations, citing issues with the procurement process and Mathema’s reluctance to follow established procedures.
“Our headmistress has powers over set procurement regulations. We raised our eyebrows when we saw the quotation she submitted to the committee leading us to contact the DSI for further management. As a procedure, we must receive only three quotations, on that said tender there were four quotations and I refused to sign it,” Tshongwe said.
“Mathema said we should send the tenders back in order to accommodate the forth one and I refused and told her we will be now influencing the system. This led to many quarrels and we felt intimidated as we were now not doing things the way we know them.”
The SDC chairperson claimed the headmistress has often told them that she does not want to work with them as they are sabotaging her.
“Mathema often does what she wants. We have tried to engage her many times and she has refused. As a Committee, we had agreed that since the teacher on leave was from the Ministry of Education, she should fill the vacant post with someone who is already on the PSC database as a temporary relief” said Tshongwe.
“But Mathema did it her own way and we saw her young sister filing in that post. We sat down to debate the issue and she told us that she wants to work with someone who will listen to her.”
Tshongwe also confirmed that teachers are made to sweep the school yard before classes resume.
When contacted for comment, the DSI, Lawrence Matshazi, said his office is investigating the matter.
“When we receive a petition we then do our own investigations. The Ministry is still working on that one,” he said.
The headmistress declined to comment on the allegations, when reached for a comment.
“I don’t have a comment on that one because you have your sources,” Mathema said.
