‘Not too famous to be sued’: Bryn Taurai Mteki fumes as High Court auctions household furniture over unpaid child’s school fees

Bryn Taurai Mteki, the sculptor, musician and politician better known as Sekuru Tau, has had household property attached and sold after a dispute over school fees for his primary school-going child.

The property was seized following proceedings in the High Court of Zimbabwe under case number HC1817/26. The child attends Direct Contact School in Harare, where the dispute reportedly centred on fees that Mteki says he had not been expected to pay in full because the child was on a bursary.

Among the items taken were a dining table, a three-seater beige couch, a room divider, an electric food display, a generator, a three-piece wooden set, seven kitchen stools and a three-piece basket coffee set.

The goods were subsequently placed under a sale-in-execution notice and handled by Ruby Auctions in Harare. By the time Mteki said he intended to challenge the ruling, the property had already found a buyer.

Mteki confirmed that his household goods had been attached, but said he would seek to reverse the judgment.

“It’s true that they have attached my property but I will try my best to have the ruling rescinded. My child was on a bursary but, all of a sudden, I was ordered to pay half of the school fees. I have always been responsible but I was disappointed to hear that they were now attaching my property. It was unfair to me, considering that I am a well-known figure, and I deserved to be consulted first,” he said.

The sale moved ahead despite Mteki’s intention to pursue legal recourse. Ruby Auctions confirmed that the dispute had been resolved and that the goods had been sold, although the amount paid by the buyer was not disclosed.

“The matter between Mteki and the school has since been resolved, and the property got a buyer on Tuesday. We had been running an advert in your paper, but we have since stopped running it after finding a buyer. It’s unfortunate that we cannot reveal the figure for professional reasons, but just know that the property was sold,” said a source from Ruby Auctions.

The dispute is understood to have followed several attempts to secure payment. A source familiar with the matter said the outstanding fees remained unpaid after efforts to settle the issue failed.

“Several attempts were made to have the matter resolved but the outstanding fees remained unpaid, resulting in the school taking legal action,” said the source.

The same source criticised the way the dispute had unfolded, saying the child had been placed at the centre of a fight between adults.

“It’s sad that Bryn Mteki has offered to embarrass his child. He should have settled the school fees on time or sent the child to a school that he could afford. This kind of embarrassment is unnecessary for an innocent child.”

The case comes as Zimbabwean schools continue to pursue different ways of recovering unpaid fees from parents and guardians. In May, Deputy Primary and Secondary Education Minister Angeline Gata said public schools could use lawful recovery measures, including attaching property, but only after dialogue and internal efforts to reach an agreement had failed.

She said schools should consider the financial circumstances of families and make use of flexible payment arrangements where possible. Learners must not be sent home because of unpaid fees, and any attachment of property must follow due process and be used only as a final measure.

That national debate has given fresh focus to the Mteki case, where a school-fee dispute ended not with a payment plan but with furniture, household equipment and a generator being sold through an auction process. The figure owed has not been made public, and the sale price has also remained undisclosed.

For Mteki, the development marks a sharp turn in a public life that has stretched across Zimbabwe’s art, music and political worlds. He is the son of renowned sculptor Richard Mteki, who trained him in the craft, and was born in 1975. His stone works have been exhibited in Europe, the United States, South Africa and Germany, giving him an international profile well beyond the local art scene.

He first attracted wider public attention through sculpture before becoming a familiar face on Zimbabwean television through his music. Under the name Sekuru Tau, he developed a following with what he described as African Roots music. He rejected the suggestion that his work belonged to the Chimurenga tradition associated with Thomas Mapfumo.

His best-known breakthrough came through “Nora”, a duet with the late Elliot Manyika. The song helped lift Mteki into the public spotlight and made him a recognisable figure at the turn of the millennium. Other songs associated with his career include “Ambuya” and “Zimbabwe”, tracks that helped establish his name among Zimbabwean music fans.

Mteki’s recorded work has included the albums “Kurauone”, released in 2000, “Kuyaruka” in 2001, “Hamunyare” in 2003, “Pfugama Unamate” in 2004, and “Tsuro Magen’a” and “Vadzoka” in 2007. He also recorded “Ndakura” and continued releasing music after building his reputation as a sculptor. In 2015, he released a compilation of earlier tracks and later worked on another album that included a collaboration with businessman Phillip Chiyangwa.

Sculpture has remained central to his identity. His work was displayed at the Zimbabwe Heritage Exhibition in 1992, where he was the youngest artist selected from entries submitted across the country. In 1996, he donated a sculpture titled “Child Survival” to then-president Robert Mugabe at an exhibition held in memory of Sally Mugabe. Another work, “Chippi”, became the official motif and emblem of the 1996 All-Africa Games.

Mteki also entered politics. He pulled out of the Zanu-PF primaries in 2003, saying he wanted to concentrate on his artistic work, and later contested the 2018 presidential election as an independent candidate. He was unsuccessful, but the campaign added another chapter to a career already marked by frequent changes of direction.

Mteki maintains that he was responsible, that the bursary arrangement changed suddenly and that he should have been consulted before his property was attached. The school-fee dispute has since been resolved, but the auction has left the celebrated artist facing an unusually public reckoning over a private family obligation.