Harare’s most prestigious private school and one of the most expensive in the country, Eaglesvale has gone bankrupt shortly after being taken over by a standing member of President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU PF party, Mr. Naison Tirivavi (the former headmaster) the school board had suspended for misappropriating school funds and assets, ZimEye can exclusively reveal.
 

When the suspended headmaster mysteriously returned to work and fired the same board which was investigating him, the school which is owned by THE philanthropic Dutch Reformed Church, was then scrambled with assistance of ZANU PF officials, and finally seized early this year, ZimEye can reveal. This development is one of many in which institutions and businesses have come under the control of black Zimbabweans loyal to the ruling party. A dubious organisation based in Masvingo Mr Tirivavi calls The Reformed Church of Zimbabwe took over resulting in the school going bankrupt.
 
Mr Tirivavi announced this week that the school can no longer pay general workers their full wages and so he is looking to cut down on work hours. “As for August pay for instance, I don’t know if we will be able to pay and when,” Tirivavi said on Monday.
 
This was so despite the school charging amounts up to $3600 per student. The fee structure is as follows: boarding $3600, day high school $2300 and junior school $1450 per term.
 
After overturning his own suspension early this year, Tirivavi returned to work and conducted a ceremony where he announced the school was now indigenised and because the Dutch Reformed Church is of foreign origin.
 
When questioned for further details on the development and also on why the indigenisation ceremony was not officially published in the ordinary way, Mr Tirivavi refused to answer requesting rather to meet our reporter face to face at an undisclosed location: “Ko zvingaita here kuti tisangane muHarare titaure takatarisana zviso zvedu”, Tirivavi asked our reporter.
 
He said he has been reinstated after the seizure. The ceremony conducted attended by the controversial Local Government and National Housing Minister Ignatius Chombo, together with Education Minister Mr. Lazarus Dokora, also had Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa as an invited guest. READ MORE