School shut down after 53 pupils sexually abused

School shut down after 53 pupils sexually abused

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By Staff Reporter

THE Zimbabwe government has closed down a boarding school in the east of the country where at least 53 pupils were sexually abused by a handful of adults including a teacher and a caretaker, the state-controlled Herald reported on Wednesday.

Education Minister Aeneas Chigwedere closed the school - Macheke Primary - down on Tuesday, the paper said.

The report said that at least 16 girls were repeatedly raped by a caretaker and have been infected with a sexually-transmitted disease (STD), the Herald said.

Others were abused by a total of "five suspects", among them the 38-year-old caretaker and a teacher. The abuse is understood to have taken place over a period of months and the first cases were unearthed earlier this year.

The authorities want to know how the abuse happened on such a large scale without being exposed, the report said. The school has a total of 146 pupils.

"It is very abnormal. There is a conspiracy, 53 children were abused and teachers were not aware and the pupils were not reporting", said Chigwedere, who met parents and the headmistress of the school.

"We are supposed to protect the children. We are the responsible authorities," the minister added. The paper said Chigwedere was visibly angry".

The school is to reopen next term with new staff, the paper said.

Cases of sexual abuse of children are regularly reported in newspapers in Zimbabwe. Many cases are perpetrated by adults known to the children, some of them relatives. Zimbabwe has one of the highest HIV and Aids rates in the world, with at least one in four adults believed to carry the HIV virus. - Sapa-dpa
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