‘Police letting society down on drug peddlers’

Philemon Jambaya

The Zimbabwe Republic Police has been blamed for failing to deal with drug lords in the country, stakeholders at a drugs and hard substances seminar in Harare heard.

This comes on the backdrop of a blitz initiated by police in an effort to deal with drugs and hard substances in the community. It also comes as several incidents of drugs have been reported in secondary schools across the country.

The seminar, titled Drugs and Hard substance abuse: The New Menace in our Public Education System and organised by the Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe, heard that the police know everyone who is involved in drugs.

The seminar brought together the police, legislators, teachers’ unions and civil society.

Highfield West Legislator, Happymore Chidziva, who was also in attendance said:

“There was a spike on drugs in 2020 during the Covid-19-induced lockdown but sadly, the police know these people and they should make sure they arrest these people.

“Drug and substance abuse has caused so many unwanted pregnancies which has resulted to unsafe abortions in our communities. We should work together and get rid of this animal,” Chidziva said.

SAYWHAT Child Protection officer, Alister Chibvongodze, said that parents no longer have enough time with their kids.

“Drugs abuse starts at family level, school and community. If you check, 3/4 of people no longer have time with their families; people no longer have time for their children.

“In 2022, we received 9 000 phone calls from parents who were pleading for assistance as their children were now partaking in drugs,” Chibvongodze said.

Other stakeholders called for the government to provide free education as a form of countering drug and substance abuse.

An investigation done by Zim Now reaffirmed the issue of unwanted pregnancies since most girls are abused through what they call “One hit, One round” where one is given one hit of crystal meth and in return, she indulges in unprotected sex.

ARTUZ president Obert Masaraure said that the country should move from blitz operations.

“We should move from these blitz approaches and try to tackle these issues every day. As a union, we will try by all means to work with everyone so that we do not lose our generation to drugs and substance abuse,” Masaraure said.