ZAMENKOMSTE – A dispute between the principal of Nnzwobi Secondary School and his SGB chairperson, Mr Norman Mabila, a former mayor of Makhado over the issuing of a cheque to a service provider, ended in violence next to the FNB bank in Makhado on Friday.

As a result of the bad blood between the SGB and the principal, there was a deadlock with regards to the issuing of cheques to service providers, appointment of new teachers as well as other educational activities at Nnzwobi School. One of the school’s service providers, Tshililo Ramashidzha, whom the school owed R220 for transport, took the SGB and the school to the Zamenkomste tribal council, after realising that nothing was forth-coming from the school.

On May 22 the tribal council issued a letter to the chairperson of the SGB, his committee members and the school principal requesting them to avail themselves at the tribal council on May 29 to resolve the matter. Last Friday, Mabila went to the FNB bank at Makhado to negotiate with the bank for the bank to cash the money into Ramashidzha’s account. “After the bank had agreed to cash the money, on my way out from the bank, I met the principal, Mr Thabo Mashau, who immediately started calling me names, asking why I have issued the cheque to Ramashidzha,” Mabila said.

Mabila alleges that as the argument became heated, Mashau took a broom, which was at the bank’s wall and smacked him on his forehead, before he (Mashau) ran away and locked himself in his car. Mabila, who claimed to have spent the weekend with his right eye partially closed, immediately went to the Mak-hado SAPS to open an assault charge against the principal.

Asked about his relationship with the school principal before last week’s scuffle, Mabila said at times they used to differ at meetings, but not in a personal manner.

“It is healthy to differ at the gatherings as one person’s decision cannot supersede the majority,” he said.

When asked to comment, the principal said that his lawyer had advised him not to make statements to the media as the matter is in the hands of the law. The police have confirmed that a case of assault to cause grievious bodily harm has been opened against Mr Thabo Moses Mashau (46), adding that he had appeared in the Makhado Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday, May 31. The case was postponed to June 27.