149 Illegal Schools face closure

149 Illegal Schools face closure

Brian Rungano Temba

Office of the Secretary for Provincial Affairs and Devolution in the President’s Office, in conjunction with the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education have closed the window given to operators of illegal schools in Harare to regularise their operations.

Out of the 435 illegal schools operating in Harare, only 287 have taken advantage of the window to comply with the regulations since the blitz to encourage compliance with the Education Act started on January 17, 2022.
In a statement, Harare Metropolitan Permanent Secretary for Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Mr Tafadzwa Muguti said that his office was left with no option but to move to close the illegal schools since they have not shown any signs of willing to comply.

“It is regrettable that we continue to have some individuals who seek to undermine laws of the land in particular the Education Act. To this effect all schools operating illegally that failed to comply since January 17, 2022 shall now be shut down whilst the heads and directors including board members of those schools shall be arrested for contravening the Education Act. The Province shall have a Zero Tolerance policy towards corruption and lawlessness,,” said Mr Tafadzwa Muguti.

The window period extension was granted for the benefit of those who were unable to comply immediately to sort out their paperwork to March 13, 2022.
Mr Muguti, in apparent frustration, said that it was these same unregistered schools that do not pay tax and overcharge school fees.

“We have a huge challenge right now that most of these schools which are operating in the Province are operating illegally, not registered even with the local authorities, or ZIMRA. As a result they do whatever they want, they charge the fees they want outside of the spectrum of the Education Act. They were given leniency and the deadline was extended twice up to end of March, April, now we are in May,” he said.

Mr Muguti said that those who submitted applications and are awaiting a response are safe but those who ignored the call to dialogue have shown they are bent on breaking the law and the law is now taking it’s course.