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The unbelievable, the bizarre and the odd happenings in our community could be reduced to periodic inconveniences that would be ignored while society carries on with its daily business.
However, that is, if the effects of the odd happenings do not materially affect the community. Tales of witchcraft and the dark spiritual world jolt society into a realisation that there is more to life than just the physical, and the latest case of two schools in Nkayi that were allegedly shut down by goblins, brought that reality to the fore.
Teachers at two schools deserted the premises over strange happenings there, forcing the schools to close and leading to school authorities making arrangements for O-level candidates to sit for their examinations at another school. It is at such periods that the role of the traditional leaders is shown to be crucial. These are the people that lead in such communities and understand their communities better, and within those communities they have those that can resolve such situations just as they also have those that can aggravate them.
We believe all the community around Fudu primary and secondary schools need is to have functional schools. These rural communities sacrifice a lot to improve their schools as they take turns to mould bricks, provide labour during construction of the classrooms, not to mention the payment of fees to ensure that their children get an education. It is therefore quite worrying that such episodes, that have increased in frequency in recent years, visit our schools putting to waste the noble efforts by the parents.
We hope the traditional leaders, as well as religious leaders, are empowered enough to marshal their communities and deal with acts of misconduct that have made school infrastructure inhabitable. These are not the first schools to be affected by the strange creatures and they certainly are not the last. What we believe is that the Ministry of Local Government (under which traditional leaders fall) in conjunction with the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education should come up with a known template to tackle such issues so that we avoid inconveniencing schoolchildren.
The fact that there are schools that were once affected but the communities resolved such matters gives us hope and also makes us believe that a database of experts that can deal with similar issues can be created for future use. We believe in future those that admit to have been behind such nefarious activities should be penalised to deter other like-minded individuals. In as much as there is raging debate around how genuine such mystery attacks are, what is apparent is that something is not right at the schools, leading to the teachers fleeing their work stations. May our traditional and religious leaders please stand up and be counted.
derick.khumalo