School row leaves 750 pupils stranded

entering the school.

Herentals took charge of the school yesterday on the strength of a High Court order obtained last Friday.
Business came to a standstill at the school as bouncers who had reportedly been hired by Herentals officials barred parents and pupils from entering the yard.

Disgruntled parents and their children spent hours mi-lling outside the school gate trying to come to terms with the recent development.
Herentals College is embroiled in an ownership wrangle with Release Power Investments, a local company that runs the school.

HERENTALS COLLEGE

Last Friday, High Court judge Justice Francis Bere gran-ted Herentals an interim relief to continue operating at the premises until the finalisation of the ownership dispute.
In terms of the order, Release Power and Cold Comfort were barred from interfering with Herentals.

However, Release Power filed a notice of appeal at the Supreme Court challenging the lower court’s decision immediately after the court ruling last Friday.
This effectively suspended the lower court’s decision.

The warring parties hold two separate title deeds to property at the centre of the dispute amid allegations of fraud and corruption.
Herentals brought its own pupils and teachers in a bus.

Cold Comfort Junior School teachers could also be seen milling around the school yard with nothing to do.
Parents who spoke to The Herald expressed concern at lack of transparency in the manner the school buildings changed hands.

They said they were major stakeholders who should have been consulted before the property on which the school is built was sold.
“This is a community school and we invested a lot in this school and to be chased away just like this is unacceptable.

“If we had been notified, I tell you the chaos could not have been there,” said one parent Mrs Mejury Gutu.
Others said they could not have their children at schools run by private colleges, which charge fees that are beyond their reach.
The parents also said Herentals was charging US$12O per term, which is US$70 more than what they have been paying to Cold Comfort Junior School.

Another parent Mr Musa Mugari said: “There are no negotiations and they just want us to give them pupils without negotiating the fees.
“The college wants to commercialise education which must be every child’s right.

“We are even struggling to pay the current US$5O and how do they expect us to manage?
“What we want for our kids is basic education through formal schools, not these private colleges which are just there for profiteering.”

Cold Comfort School Development Committee secretary Mr Kingston Chigwere said Herentals bouncers were threatening their children.
“We don’t want to be associated with this college. Since last week, these bouncers who are almost everywhere in classes and toilets were threatening our students.

“We have our own teachers and I don’t know where they want them to go since they also brought in their teachers,” he said.
Herentals officials said they had a court order and would abide with it.

“As far as we are concerned, we are the real owners as evidenced by the court outcome. As for their appeal, we haven’t seen anything from the courts so it still remains our property,” said an official who declined to be named.

Asked what the bouncers were doing, the official said: “They are just interested parties.”
The Cold Comfort Junior School head, who only identified himself as Mr Chinyamuchiko, declined to comment.