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Whinsley Masara Chronicle Reporter
ANGRY parents yesterday besieged Masuku primary school in Bulawayo’s Tshabalala suburb over $20,000 that was raised to buy a school bus but remains unaccounted for two years on. It has been claimed that the person who was sent to purchase the bus in South Africa was drugged and robbed of the money.

Parents whose children learn at the school went to the institution yesterday morning in the company of the Affirmative Action Group and Zanu-PF youth league members to demand answers from the headmaster Dumisani Mthwakazi whom they later dragged to Tshabalala police station.

When parents arrived at the school, Mthwakazi phoned the police reporting that there were intruders who were disrupting Grade Seven public examinations. The last paper for Grade seven, General Paper 1 was written yesterday.

Meanwhile, AAG members also called the police who took the headmaster to Tshabalala police station after he declined to divulge why the bus had still not been delivered.

At the police station, Mthwakazi said he reported the matter to the police some time back but was not comfortable with discussing the details.

Police at the station referred the team to the Criminal Investigations Department Fraud Squad.

Bulawayo Provincial Education Director Dan Moyo could not be reached for comment.

A parent, Maxwell Moyo, told The Chronicle that the headmaster has been evasive over the bus issue since they paid the money two years ago.

“In 2012 and 2013 our children were sent home for non-payment of the bus levy. During the collection of the money, the headmaster kept us updated but when the money was enough, we were never informed, only to hear that the cash had been stolen,” said Moyo.

“I attended two meetings last year where the head continuously addressed us saying the treasurer, identified as Mr Pikirai, was allegedly drugged at a coffee shop in Durban, South Africa, dragged to a hotel and robbed of $16,000 that he had hidden in his stockings.”

He said they were shocked to be told that the treasurer had been robbed of $16,000 in South Africa and was left with $4,000.

Moyo claimed that parents were shown the treasurer’s torn pair of trousers as the alleged proof of the robbery, but they did not believe the story.

A representative of the Zanu-PF youth league, Marshall Mpofu, whose child is a pupil at the school, said they approached the headmaster on two occasions but they did not get a satisfactory answer.

“As a parent who also paid the bus levy of $20 per term, we deserve to know the state of the bus issue. The headmaster becomes very hostile and refuses to explain to anyone on that topic. It’s two years now since the headmaster addressed parents telling them that the $16, 000 had been stolen in South Africa. Parents are saying they are not happy because they are not being given feedback but are only seeing the personal developments of the SDC members.” he said.

“We’ve not come here for a fight but a feedback so we and others understand better. The way he reacts makes us worried because surely $20,000 is not a small figure and he thinks the issue will die a natural death. We would appreciate if he tells us something progressive.”