Methodist Church Cleared In Missing School Funds Saga
The Methodist Church in Zimbabwe (MCZ) has been cleared on allegations of misappropriating funds by the community at Matjinge High School in Plumtree.
The Matjinge community wanted the office of the principal to be abolished at the MCZ-run school as they accused him of running down the school.
It wanted the school to be handed over to the local council and School Development Committee (SDC).
The parents even petitioned the government, alleging that school authorities were misappropriating school funds among other issues.
Last year the parents had a meeting with representatives from the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education and Methodist church Bulawayo District Bishop over the issues.
MCZ denied abusing funds and it later emerged that the person who was stealing the money from the school was a community member who was employed as an accounts clerk.
CITE’s Senzeni Ncube reported a source as saying that the School Development Committee (SDC) unearthed the fraud by the employee. Said the source:
After being elected into the SDC as a treasurer, we then discovered the fraud that was done by the clerk. She would issue the correct receipts to the parent for example if someone paid R360 she would go on to write R60 on the duplicate receipt.
The matter was reported to the police and the clerk was dismissed from the school.
Methodist Church Education Secretary, Bishop Wilfred Dimingu told CITE that the situation at the school was back to normal. He said:
It’s an account clerk who resides in the community, she stayed in the community and was engaged by the primary school to work as an account clerk, it was the issue of embezzlement of funds by the employee.
As a church, we are happy that we managed to resolve misunderstandings that were there, everything is now in order, the parents understood how things are done, the ministry explained to them and everything is in order now.
