admin
Bulawayo police at the weekend arrested more than 130 rowdy youths, mostly school pupils and confiscated alcohol and sex enhancing pills from the teenagers who were on their way to vuzu parties.
It has become a habit for the pupils to go on the rampage in the city centre on the first Saturday when schools close and the last Saturday before schools open.
Police said the pupils arrested on Saturday were aged between 14 and 24 and they spent the weekend in custody awaiting to be taken to court.
The school pupils who are usually joined by school leavers at the vuzu parties, usually engage in risky unprotected sex while drunk.
Police said on the first Saturday when schools closed for the first term, they arrested 40 rowdy youths and 49 others were arrested on the last day of this year’s Zimbabwe International Trade Fair.
The vuzu parties are normally held at houses where children stay alone.
Most parents of these children who stay alone are in the diaspora hence their houses are convenient venues for these vuzu parties.
It is a free-for-all at these parties where the juveniles abuse drugs and alcohol and end up engaging in risky behaviour such as indulging in sex usually without protection.
Residents have over the years called on the police to clampdown on these vuzu parties but it seems the juveniles are unrelenting.
Police have been raiding these vuzu parties and arresting the attendees but the arrests are not deterrent enough hence these youths, who are mostly school pupils, continue to attend the parties.
Those playing hosts or providing venues for these parties usually provide the bulk of the funding for the parties.
The parents of these children as already alluded to are in the diaspora and therefore send them a lot of money meant to cater for their needs.
It is this money which they end up spending at vuzu parties.
Raiding vuzu parties has not been deterrent enough and there is therefore a need to get to the bottom of the problem.
We need as Bulawayo residents to urgently address this problem which is threatening the future of our children.
These vuzu parties cannot be allowed to continue and this tradition of rowdy youths going on the rampage should be stopped forthwith.
We want to commend the work being done by the police which should be complemented by parents accounting for the whereabouts of their children all the time.
Our children need to be put on the leash especially during school holidays and we need to take time to explain to them the dangers of indulging in drug or alcohol abuse and other such vices.
Online Reporter