TWO people reportedly sustained minor bruises when a whirlwind destroyed roofs of two classroom blocks at Gomoza Primary School in Lupane.
The incident happened last Friday and temporarily disturbed a mobile registration by the Civil Registry Department whose team was using one of the classrooms at the school.
The school has four blocks and if not repaired, some learners will attend lessons in roofless classrooms as schools open next week.
Lupane East legislator Cde Mbongeni Dube said the school was appealing for help from well-wishers to be able to repair the damaged buildings.
“The whirlwind came from nowhere and hit the school on Friday. Two blocks had their roofs blown off and in one of the blocks was the mobile registration team carrying out mobile registration and two people who were waiting to apply for identity documents were injured,” said Cde Dube.
He said the local councillor, Malachi Tshuma from Kusile Rural District Council quickly intervened and facilitated that the registration team be allocated another classroom and continue with the registration work.
“We are happy that there were no serious injuries and no machines or school equipment was damaged although people are still in shock. We appeal to the Civil Protection Committee and well-wishers to help the school renovate the damaged classroom blocks so that lessons are not disturbed next week.
“We are a district that struggles with pass rate and we don’t want anything that negates the efforts being made to improve the pass rate,” said Cde Dube.
Matabeleland North provincial registrar Mr Innocent Dumani said the registration exercise was not affected.
Meanwhile, in a related incident, a family in Pupu in the same district lost property after a fire razed down a hut.
The incident happened at a village near Pupu National Monument and the family lost valuables that include identity documents, food, clothes, household property like a bed and other items, Pupu Ward 11 councillor, Simanga Sibanda confirmed.
He said the fire was started by a whirlwind which blew across a homestead igniting the house from a fireplace in the yard.
— Chronicle
