The Sunday News
Vusumuzi Dube, Senior Reporter
THE headmaster of Mandwandwe High School in Bulawayo, Lymius Moyo, and two school workers on Friday appeared in court for allegedly stealing doors that had been replaced at the school.
Moyo (60), the school driver, Tafirei Gumbira (52) and the caretaker, Stanley Sibanda (64) appeared before Western Commonage magistrate Mr Jochonia Ncube facing one count of theft as defined in Section 113 of the Criminal Law Codification Act Chapter 9:23. They pleaded not guilty and were remanded out of custody to 3 May for trial.
Prosecuting, Ms Patience Madziwa told the court that the three accused used their positions at the school to steal seven double clad doors. Two of the doors were recovered at Gumbira’s house.
“On the period from 1 January 2014 extending to 30 January 2021 the accused persons took advantage of their positions and stole seven double-clad wooden-doors. On 4 February a report was made at ZRP Nkulumane and the investigations revealed that seven doors were stolen. Two of the doors were recovered at the driver’s place of residence, Mr Tafirei Gumbira. Total value stolen is $68 558 and value recovered is $19 588,” said Ms Madziwa.
The school was represented by the chairperson of the School Development Committee, Mr Sign Bhebhe.
In February when the school first reported the missing doors, Mr Bhebhe was quoted as saying when the doors were found in Gumbira’s possession he implicated Moyo as the one who had given him the doors.
“As the SDC we got a request from the school to replace the doors, we naturally approached parents who gave us a go ahead, we then went ahead to replace 32 doors at the school. However, we later got a tip-off that the driver had taken some of the old doors to his house and for sure when we went there, we identified two of the old doors that had been installed at his house.
“When we asked him, he implicated the school head who initially neither denied nor confirmed this assertion, we then went back to the school where we did an inventory on the old doors, where we found that only 16 were left, it is then that the school head professed ignorance on the whereabouts of the doors, which is why we had to report the issue to the police,” Mr Bhebhe was quoted as saying.
