On 17 March, 2023, politician Linda Masarira posted a ‘heartwarming’ tweet praising ‘a rare teacher in Chivi’. Her thread claimed that the woman in the picture – who she identified as Chisanga Zulu – was a teacher in Chivi and the baby on her back was a sibling to one of her grade 6 pupils. She hashtagged the thread as part of the #HappyWomensMonth posts.
The tweet had garnered 60 800 views, 601 likes and 59 retweets, at the time of publication.
The tweet was also picked up by a Zim Celebs Facebook page further spreading the misinformation.
Unfortunately, this did not happen in Zimbabwe. A simple google or Twitter search for Chisanga Zulu will take one to the original social media posts written in 2018.
The woman is indeed a teacher – albeit in Kifubwa Primary School, Solwezi in Zambia and not in Chivi, Zimbabwe as claimed in Masarira’s tweet.
Zulu was in the news again in 2019 when she was promoted to Deputy Headteacher of her school.
Conclusion
The woman named and pictured in Masarira’s tweet is not Zimbabwean. The incident did not happen in Chivi, Zimbabwe but in Solwezi, Zambia. It happened in 2018 and not 2023.
