PRIMARY and Secondary Education Minister Dr Lazarus Dokora suspects the bombing of Manunure High School in Kwekwe on Monday could be an inside job. The criminals targeted the school’s administration block housing important information like financial records.
The bombing incident happened at a time when most schools have made headlines for misappropriation of levies forcing Government to dispatch auditors. In an interview with the state media yesterday, Dr Dokora said although police were investigating the matter it was clear this could be an inside job.
“On the use of levies, we have those that are regularly trying to siphon in one way or another. They are the ones who are most sensitive when there is talk of reform in the levy regime.
“Now you hear Kwekwe school petrol-bombed, yet we have been to Kwekwe ourselves and my last engagement was during this outreach at that site of Kwekwe High School and the head of that school where the bombing took place actually engaged us in dialogue and it was about money.
“So in a back-handed way, I was not surprised. We need to look at every piece of evidence and we hope the police will come up with the culprit,” he said. Dr Dokora said there was need for a thorough investigation into the matter.
“Who was this masked person? And arriving at a site of crime in a mask virtually suggesting you were aware that there is CCTV within the premises.
“It cannot be a total stranger. It is somebody familiar and the bombing just focuses on the receiption area where receipts are generally associated with the bursar’s offices or the accounts clerk and so on.
“So we raise our red flag to say that no, this cannot be a way of managing our resources,” he said.
The school was petrol-bombed on Monday after unknown people lobbed a petrol bomb through a window of the administration block where the administration and financial records, enrolment figures, details of nearly 3 000 pupils and receipt books were kept.
Government has alleged culprits dipping into the $1,2 billion largesse include school development committee officials. It is also suspected that some school authorities are allegedly duplicating receipt books as cover to lay their hands on development funds.
“We are aware of the reported story in one of the provinces where a school bursar simply disappeared from a school with the keys to the relevant sections where the documents were kept, but this is an aberration not the consistent message,” said Dr Dokora.