Ndebele exiles warn Zanu-PF tribalists of severe consequences over Lupane arrests

Lupane- The people of Lupane have vowed to continue fighting the Zanu-PF government over its tribal policy of deploying Shona speaking teachers in the district.The villagers said they were prepared to put their own lives in the firing line than to watch their children's education being destroyed by Shona teachers.

Speaking to this reporter from Lupane,the villagers said they were tired of being abused and treated as second class citizens by the government using the 1979 Grand Plan as the country's de-facto constitution.

The defiant villagers fired their first warning shots on Monday when they stormed Mlamuli Secondary School and ordered its controversial head,a Miss M Bonyongwe to leave the school with immediate effect.They accused her of illtreating the few Ndebele teachers at the school and of working closely with the government spy agency,the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO).

The spy agency is reported to have deployed its operatives to protect her following threats by the locals.The villagers move follows a meeting they held a few days ago where they signed a petition demanding that the government removes all Shona teachers from their schools.

The petition was delivered to the Ministry of Education offices in Lupane.The district education officer in Lupane has defended the unpopular Bonyongwe saying the government had the right to deploy civil servants to any part of the country.

The children at the school were reported to have been traumatised after they were called to assembly more than three times where they were addressed by uniformed police officers.The police were accompanied by a councillor from the MDC-T party and an officer from the Education Ministry.

But the same education ministry has not been doing the same with Ndebele teachers most of whom are sitting at home with no jobs.The teachers have been denied employment while Ndebele students from high schools are refused entry at teacher training colleges.

Teacher training institutions in Matabeleland have become a preserve of Shona people.Following the Lupane disturbances,police descended on Mlamuli School and arrested four members of the School Development Committee for allegedly inciting the villagers to remove Bonyongwe.

"As I speak to you,there are members of the Criminal Investigations Department(CID) who are harassing villagers for standing up to the evil Zanu-PF regime,"said one villager who spoke on conditions of anonymity.

The parents say they will withdraw all their children from the school if Shona teachers did not leave.

The arrested villagers were identified as Mbusi Nkomo,Mbonisi Khoza,Thabani Sibanda and Liberty Ndlovu.They are being held at Jotsholo Police Station.In Johannesburg Zimbabweans from Matabeleland met and donated money towards the legal fees for the four villagers.

They are being represented by Dumisani Dube.The opposition Mthwakazi Republic Party(MRP) has sent some of its officials to Lupane to show solidarity.On social networks the Lupane debacle is trending under the harsh tag #Gukurahundists Must Fall#  

Last year parents at Makuzeze School in Mangwe stormed the school and demanded the removal of the head there, Victoria Pasipanodya whom they accused of abusing Ndebele teachers.