Murewa teacher marries grade six pupil

By Nyore Madzianike

A GRADE six teacher at Dandara Primary School in Murewa, Mashonaland East left the community baffled after marrying one of his pupils. But what is equally shocking is he married the young girl with the blessing of not only her parents, but the village headman as well!

According to some concerned parents and community leaders, Frank Mushoriwa fell in love with the young girl (name supplied).

Ticha Mushoriwa Wendebvu — so called by students on account of his beard (one that he may probably shave now that his heinous act is in the open) to differentiate him from the other Mr Mushoriwa at the school — was purported to have extended classroom lessons to his bedroom after luring the young girl with money and goodies.

“That story is true. We work with Mushoriwa and we used to respect him as a professional and as our brother. “But we no longer hold him with esteem. The affair had gone on for a long time and some of the pupils seem to have been aware of what has been happening. “Our concern is on how he managed to go unpunished considering that the girl is a minor.

“Plus it is not allowed according to the rules and regulations of the Ministry of Education Sport Arts and Culture. “We heard that Mushoriwa lured the girl with goodies and money (which should not be much given the small fancies common to grade six pupils) she was very vulnerable considering her poor background,” said one teacher who chose to remain anonymous.

For all we know Mushoriwa could have bought the little girl a lollypop or let her touch his goaty beard to win her heart. The teacher who described Mushoriwa as a “lustful boy from Hurungwe” blamed him for tarnishing the image of male teachers at the school to the society. He was bitter because members of the community were now labelling all male teachers with distasteful names because of the errant teacher’s shameful behaviour.

Asked to explain how the two’s relationship could have gone on right under the noses of everyone, Mushoriwa’s bitter male colleague said: “I think it all started some months back. The whole thing came to light after he took the young girl to his house and spent THE WHOLE NIGHT WITH HER! Can you imagine?

“Suspicious due to the girl’s unaccounted for absence, the girl’s parents interrogated her until she admitted spending the night with Mushoriwa. “It is on record that he also admitted in front of the girl’s parents and he signed an “admission of guilt” document outlining what had happened on the night he spent with the girl,” said the teacher. When H-Metro hooked up with Mushoriwa yesterday at Dandara Primary school he admitted marrying his former pupil.

“That story is true but I am not staying with the girl. She has already returned to her parents’ place. I think it’s now three weeks since the incident happened. To me it’s now water under the bridge. “If you need more details you can go and talk to her parents. I hope they will entertain you. “Or you can go to whoever gave you that story in the first place,” he said showing a total lack of regard before walking away from H-Metro team.

However, H-Metro managed to track the young girl’s relatives in Shambare village, which is near the school and caught up with the girl’s uncle and Shambare Village headman, Nyamayarwo Mushoriwa.

He confirmed that Mushoriwa had admitted that he was in love with the wee angel. “He admitted that he (Ticha Mushoriwa) had an affair with her. He has signed an admission-of-guilt document that also stipulates his course of action in regard to our “little angel”.

“In the document, he said that he was going to customarily marry our child. We then agreed to that as a family and they are staying together as we speak. “I think that he took advantage of the little girl’s (poor) status and managed to lure her into the affair. If you look at her, you can tell that she is from a poor background,” he said.

Asked why they did not report the matter to the police considering that the girl was still a minor and was still in school, Headman Shambare said that the family suspected that their daughter was pregnant and they felt reporting the case would only aggravate the situation. “Who will look after the kid if he is locked up in jail? We suggested that he marries the girl so that he would look after her.

“Reporting the matter to the police will worsen the matter. And since he agreed to marry our daughter we found no problem with that,” he said, much to the chagrin of everyone listening to this questionable way of solving matters.

After Mushoriwa got the news that H-Metro had managed to contact his wife’s relatives, he then felt the urge to spruce up his story to save his skin and job and begged for a second chance to give his “new” side of the story.

“I hope this will not cost me my job. Remember we are not allowed to talk to the Press. The truth is that I am staying with the young girl. I met her some months ago but the whole thing came to light three weeks ago.” And he seriously believed this to be a better version of his evil tale. “She came to the shopping centre for an all night prayer at Apostolic Faith Mission.

“That is when I spent some time with her during that night. “Her parents got wind of this and they then put pressure on me to take her in as my wife or else they were going to report the matter to the police. “I decided to take her as a way of protecting my job . . . waiziva?” he added nonchalantly.

Asked to explain how the relationship begun Mushoriwa had the guts to attack the girl’s character, implying that she is a prostitute. “You know what? This girl was in the group of those loose village girls who would frequent the shopping centre scouting for men. “I then just picked her on the night she came for the all night prayer at AFM. But truly speaking she was not one of my students.

She is a school drop-out after her parents failed to raise school fees for her. She was supposed to be doing Form One”. Mushoriwa said that he would escape jail in the event that her parents decided to lodge a complaint with the police. “I think she will be celebrating her 17th birthday tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. “I am safe on that technicality,” he said confidently. H Metro