HARARE - Over 500 Kuwadzana 3 Primary School parents in Harare yesterday besieged the school demanding the transfer of the school head and one of the pupils on allegations of practising Satanism.
Lessons for the day were disrupted as anti-riot police failed to disperse the agitated parents.
It took the intervention of local Member of Parliament Nelson Chamisa to convince the parents to let their children continue with their learning.
The parents claimed that a Grade Four pupil’s body was changing into snake colours while four other pupils from the same class had developed tattoos which had caused the hysteria.
The school headmistress was chased away by parents from another school in the same neighbourhood on similar allegations.
“We really do not understand the goings on here with one of the learners claiming that he is seeing visions of his father’s late friend,” one of the parents told the Daily News.
Efforts to contact from the parents whose children were being implicated were fruitless as their phones were unreachable.
Chamisa expressed shock at the development but thanked Kuwadzana parents for understanding the need for children to continue going to school despite the terrifying environment.
“I had to be called in to manage the crowd as the irate parents demanded that the school be closed,” Chamisa told the Daily News. “I am also told that an unfortunate journalist collapsed when seeking comment from the accused pupil’s parents.”
Edward Shumba, the provincial education director for Metropolitan Harare, said his ministry was investigating the matter to get finer details.
He said what was important was that normal lessons had resumed while investigations were underway.
“I personally went there and when I arrived the local MP was addressing the parents after he had managed to calm them,” Shumba said.
“What was of utmost importance was to ensure that lessons resumed and by about 10 O’clock, normalcy had returned to the school.”
Cases of alleged acts of Satanism have dominated the country’s schools in recent years, leading to several parents withdrawing their children from certain schools.
In March 2012, scores of pupils thronged Yamuranai Primary School in Mufakose following allegations that a Grade 2 pupil regularly transmogrified into a snake.
In March last year, hundreds of people besieged Hatcliff Primary School where two Grade Five pupils had reportedly developed canine teeth after being given rings and bracelets by their class teacher.
Earlier in February, the parents of a Nhowe Mission pupil withdrew their child from the school following allegations she had her throat mysteriously slashed.