Two pupils of Anchor Private School in Chibombo on Tuesday  gave  testimonies in the Kabwe Magistrate’s Court in a case their teacher and patron allegedly sodomised them. The pupils also testified that their teacher, Brian Kalonga, fondled their private parts and watched pornographic movies with them. Kalonga, 38, allegedly threatened the pupils that he would beat them up if they exposed him.

This is in a case Kalonga is facing 16 charges of unnatural offence, attempting to commit an unnatural offence and indecent practice of sex between persons of the same sex. The case is before Chisamba-based magistrate Trevor Kasanda sitting in Kabwe.

The pupils are aged between five and 18. A 15-year-old boy told the court that Kalonga sodomised him 10 times at his home within the school. “The first time when he sodomised me, I was with another pupil in his room. He had sex with me about 10 times,” the pupil testified in camera. The pupil said one night while the pupils were in the dormitory, Kalonga allegedly gave him and his friends some concoction.

“At one point, he came with a stick to measure our manhoods. He threatened to beat us up if we did not oblige. We all obliged. The following night, he brought some leaves for us to chew. “As days went by, one day he called all of us to his room for a meeting and we were about 60 and he told us that what he was doing to us was a big offence and if people knew about it, he would be sent to prison for 35 years,” he said.

The boy narrated that he and other pupils told the school counsellor, a Mr Katyekele, about the abuse they were being subjected to by Kalonga but he allegedly told them not to tell anyone. The pupil said he told his father about the ordeal in the presence of another pupil when he took him for term two. The father of the boy told the court that he was with a parent of another pupil when his son and his friend revealed the alleged sexual abuse. He said he immediately reported the matter to the school director, who also called Mr Katyekele, who confirmed that pupils had reported the abuse to him.

Another pupil equally told the court that Kalonga had sodomised him. “I did not believe that he could do that to me because he sings and preaches in church,” the pupil said. He said he did not reveal his ordeal because he feared that school authorities would not believe him.