GIYANI: Rivoningo school cries foul
She claims that after losing the court case, Mashamba then started his own offshoot school, called Muhluri in the same area
When one enters the courts of Rivoningo Education Centre, they are greeted with beautiful wide smiles on the faces of the schoolchildren.
The school, which is on the outskirts of Giyani, is a budding learning centre with a longstanding culture and heritage of learning, a solid infrastructure and some of the latest technological gadgets.
But all is not well with this school.
According to the owner of the school Cecelia Coleman, their troubles began in 2010 when a group of employees under the leadership of former principal Mashamba, tried to hijack the school she had started in 1995 and worked hard for. After a long legal battle, she finally won her school back.
She claims that after losing the court case, Mashamba then started his own offshoot school, called Muhluri in the same area.
But that was only the beginning of more problems for Cecelia because Muhluri started operating fraudulently using the address, registration and exam centre number assigned to Rivoningo; even after a High Court ruling was made, ordering the department to restore all the details back to Rivoningo Education Centre.
Coleman showed the Herald her school’s exam centre number, which according to the Department of Education’s website, belongs to Muhluri High School, contrary to the High Court ruling.
Coleman says that she was hit with a deregistration letter from the Department of Education a week priorto the final examinations, which compromised the reputation of her school.
The Department of Education had not responded to these allegations.
