ROW OVER PRIVATE SCHOOL

MBABANE – Who has authority over the school? A power struggle over Impumelelo High School has ensued between the previous and current management.
Impumelelo is a private school situated at Sidwashini in Mbabane.

The current management of the school has since allegedly obtained an order interdicting the previous director from withdrawing money from the school’s bank account held with Swaziland Building Society.

The order by the court comes after the new management filed an urgent application at the High Court through their lawyer Musa Shongwe of Simelane Shongwe Attorneys.

Interdicted

The court also interdicted the previous director of the school, Ntombi Danda Nxumalo and Mpumelelo Motsamia, from interfering and disturbing the operations of the school.  Nxumalo was also interdicted from coming to the school’s premises to harass and threaten employees verbally or by any means of communication.

Nxumalo was further ordered to effect the change of the main signatories for the school’s account (collection and savings account) held with Building Society.
In his application, Guardian Mutwetwa of Zimbabwe, who claims to be the rightful authority over the school, submitted that around February 2019, Nxumalo and Motsamia started disturbing the smooth operation of the school.

Mutetwa went on to state that, around February 2019, Nxumalo and Motsamia stormed the school’s premises and unlawfully dismissed its secretary without just cause. Nxumalo is alleged to have replaced the secretary with her preferred choice.

He asserted that on February 15, 2019, Nxumalo and Motsamia called teachers and non-academic staff to a meeting. Nxumalo is alleged to have advised the teachers and the academic staff that she was in charge of the school.

Contracts

Mutwetwa alleged that Nxumalo further issued out contracts to the employees of the school and also went to address the pupils without seeking permission.
“Nxumalo is also making disingenuous, insulting and defamatory allegations that I defrauded the school of a large sum of money. What is baffling is that she is the only one who has access to the school funds,” he argued.

Mutwetwa informed the court that the school was previously under the directorate of Nxumalo.
He asserted that the premises where the school was located were owned by Nxumalo.
“Pursuant to the decline in the performance of the school in 2017 and 2018, Nxumalo, in an attempt to revive the school, invited me and one Godwin Mutwetwa (my brother) to take over the administration of the school for the approaching year 2019,” submitted Mutwetwa.

He alleged that after numerous meetings with Nxumalo, they acceded to her proposal and crafted an action plan on how they intended to resuscitate the school.
According to Mutetwa, this included but not limited to advertising the school, engaging the community in promoting the school, visiting other private schools in search for new ideas and recruiting qualified personnel. He claimed that the costs for the implementation of the action plan were incurred by him.

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