Chronicle Editor
Stephen Mpofu, Perspective
”THE City of Kings and Queens.”
Oh, how the above tag also swells the hearts of present-day residents of Bulawayo — probably all of whom are genealogically unconnected to the original royal founders of the city — swell with pride and gives a ring of greatness and fame to millions of citizens of foreign countries!
But, come to think of it, that grandiose title bears no reference to the conglomerate of industries which make Bulawayo the venue for annual international trade fairs either to other businesses or suburban areas that give Bulawayo the status of the second largest city of Zimbabwe after the capital, Harare.
The proud nametag in point in this discourse actually refers to the royal founding fathers of Bulawayo, King Lobengula and Queen Lozikheyi backed by elderly royal gurus, Mzilikazi chief among them, whose offspring, princes and princesses, if alive today should have been walking the streets of this postmodern city with their heads and shoulders raised high.
But that is not to be and the notoriety with which some citizens have become associated is bound to make other people elsewhere in the global village thumb their noses at the mention of the name Zimbabwe unless swift, collective action is taken jointly by proud residents of the city of Kings and Queens and the police to weed out malcontents and in the process tidy up Bulawayo’s otherwise proud image.
We refer here to three innocent babies found dumped in three separate suburbs within a period of two months.
According to the police, the latest incident was of a crying baby wearing only a pamper and dumped in a pit in Pumula South and whom a passerby took to the local police station.
The day before, also according to Bulawayo provincial deputy spokesperson Assistant Inspector Nomalanga Msebele, a Matshobane resident on his way home from work found a baby boy, also about two weeks old, dumped near a railway line.
Asst Insp Msebele said the third case was of a boy aged about six months whom a woman found dumped at her gate in Cowdray Park last month.
Surely relatives or neighbours of the mothers of the poor souls cast away, like trash, must have become suspicious of things being amiss when they no longer heard babies crying in their homes or when the latter was seen moving freely in public spaces away from home for long periods without their babies even when known to have no baby minders.
Which suggests here that the relatives or friends of the women in question as well as of the fathers of the babies were privy to the crimes committed since no reports of arrests are known to have been made to the police in the three cases involved.
But where were neighbourhood watch committees in the neighbourhoods of the homes of the culprits when the babies were dumped during whatever time the offences occurred?
Such committees do not have to be formal as each neighbour should naturally be duty-bound to guard against social or criminal offences in every community as guardians of the law protecting communities and societies.
And you (yes you) also come to think of reports trending in newspapers, radio bulletins as well as in social media about a nine-year-old girl from Tsholotsho, who recently gave birth at a Bulawayo hospital after allegedly being repeatedly raped by her father who has since been picked up by the police, and becoming the second reported the youngest mother probably in the world after a five-year-old mother.
Is it really possible that the Zimbabwean girl could not find someone close, a relative or friend in Matabeleland North to whom she could whisper her tribulations during the entire period of her subjection to them? Or was she threatened with hell if she told on her monstrous attacker?
The mind boggles, boggles and boggles.
Indeed, all uninverted Zimbabwean patriots and foreigners grateful for their residence in our country should regard themselves as protectors of legal and civil laws, respectively, in order for our society to go about building the nation without let or hindrances.
That way, Satan, the king of evil machinations will be rendered a toothless bulldog.
Online Reporter