Chronicle Editor
Stephen Mpofu
AS our nation celebrates 44 years of Uhuru, the headline above undoubtedly remains a major question in the minds of many Zimbabwean patriots whose minds are boggled by rampant drug and substance abuse with no visible feasible solution in sight at present.
The daunting question in the humble mind of this communicologist, and no doubt also in the beleaguered minds of other Zimbabweans who wish this country’s young generations successive brave new futures, is whether Zimbabweans born into boundless freedom since April 18 1980 have lost sight and therefore control of the locus of invincibility demonstrated by the young gallant sons and daughters of the soil of the revolution that sent into the annals of history racist, oppressive Western imperialists who had enjoyed lives riding on the backs of black indigenous people whom they had turned into ponies.
Drug and substance abuse headlines in newspapers and on airwaves certainly paint a bleak future for today’s youths in the absence of immediate, lasting solutions to the pandemic.
Worse could be in the offing for youths with nothing to profitably occupy their minds and in light of foreign radio reports a few days ago to the effect that South African police had busted millions of rands worth of cocaine from South America in a ship, the contraband no doubt destined for Sadc countries in which South Africa and Zimbabwe are also members, and further abroad on the African continent.
No immediate comment on the seizure of the contraband could be obtained from the Zimbabwe Republic Police before going to press.
(Cocaine is by a dictionary definition “an addictive drug derived from Coca, or prepared synthetically, used sometimes medicinally as an anesthetic and, often illegally, as a stimulant.”)
It is possible that repeated reports of drug and substance abuse in our country could have painted a bigger picture of demand in Africa for the cocaine in the minds of the exporters of the cocaine seized by South African police.
Which obviously suggests closer co-operation by police in the Sadc countries in order to shut out exports of drugs and other dangerous substances by foreign countries to African states in cahoots with Africans in the diaspora in some cases.
Back home in Zimbabwe and elsewhere on our continent, neighbourhood watch committees in urban areas should help expose to law enforcement agents, suppliers and users of drugs and substances to which young people with nothing to occupy them resort, in the process committing crime, so that the law takes its course.
In the countryside young people with nothing to do should be helped to undertake horticultural projects and/or keep chickens for sale to earn an income and in the process refrain from committing crime.
Of course, members of parliament out there should work closely with traditional leaders and the police to ensure that youths with nothing to gainfully occupy them to not resort to criminal activities instead.
All communities have an indispensable role to play in ensuring that youths in our beloved country contribute something tangible in developing our nation for everyone so that peace, harmony and stability under truly democratic governance will guarantee our Zimbabwean nation successive brave new futures.
What the above also suggests is that our schools curricular should be more job skills-oriented in compliance with our Government’s policy that a country is built/developed by its owners.
Online Reporter