On Wednesday, Bulawayo Metropolitan Senator Dorothy Khumalo (MDC) moved a motion to have Primary and Secondary Education Minister Dr Lazarus Dokora charged with contempt of parliament after he allegedly lied to the Senate that he could not direct schools to transfer all funds into the Schools Services Fund (SSF) instead of the School Development Committee (SDC) accounts since he did not have legal powers to do so.
However, Khumalo said that despite Dokora’s claim, he had directed schools in Harare to transfer SDC funds into SSF accounts. Said Khumalo:
When Honourable Senator Makone courteously asked for an assurance that no SDC funds have been transferred, Honourable Dr Dokora responded by saying ‘we must debate the issue first. I have no legal instrument to transfer the money’, suggesting that there were no SDC funds that had been transferred to SSF.
Madam President, there is sufficient evidence which proves that Government schools in Harare were given the directive to transfer the funds and indeed transferred SDC funds to the SSF account by the 31st March 2017. All levies for term 2 were channeled to SSF account and not SDC account as per current law. Schools have notices at their offices advising of these changes.
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