Minister of Primary and Secondary Education, Lazarus Dokora has bowed to public pressure and reversed his anti Christian order to ban Scripture Union in schools.
ZimEye.com can exclusively reveal Dokora has communicated to schools on the sudden reversal.
The learned Dokora had been claiming that the voluntary organisation, is part of the country’s education curriculum, reasons he authoritatively voiced saying it must be banned, irking the Christian community, Zimbabwe’s largest religion following revelations he was simply banning the Bible club acting on the instructions of muslim donors.
A jittery Dokora in an exclusive interview battled with facts while claiming he never once banned Scripture Union. He said ZimEye published falsehoods and went on to attack even the State Media journalist Fatima Bulla for lying on the matter. There are however time stamped recordings of Dokora himself communicating the orders.
“Fatima Bulla lied, talk to her, and get her to set the record straight herself,” Dokora told ZimEye’s Simba Chikanza in the wide ranging emotive interview. [AUDIO OF FULL INTERVIEW to follow…]
Meanwhile it was all good news to the ears of jubilant school children across Zimbabwe. “Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Mr Rogers Sisimayi, told us: “the Education Ministry never banned Scripture Union,” a senior teacher told ZimEye.com on Wednesday just as schools this week started their meetings.
While a direct comment from Scripture Union was not available at the time of writing, ZimEye discovered on Thursday schools countrywide had already started to conduct their own meetings following the announcement.
At Mabelreign Girls High in Harare for instance, 40 school children on Thursday gathered for a short prayer meeting to commemorate the day of the African Child. Their normal number is 150 and many were on Thursday still confused on the Ministry’s factual position.
AUDIO OF FULL INTERVIEW to follow…