adminPerspective
Stephen Mpofu
The border town of Beitbridge is unarguably one of the busiest ports of entry into Zimbabwe, if not the busiest, on account of cross-border trade between Zimbabwe and South Africa with large numbers of diasporans returning home loaded, adding to the volume of travellers.
With no moral corruption tainting the border post, the human traffic to and from South Africa would posit a boon to the town, attracting investors and tourists alike.
Unfortunately, however, Beitbridge might be headed for notoriety as an alias to its name thanks to criminals who are causing mayhem by attacking innocent people in an apparent bid for easy pickings from travellers returning home loaded with money from the south.
A policeman was reported this week to be in hospital in the town after being attacked by two assailants armed with machetes, as he prayed alone in a bushy area on the outskirts of the town, along the Beitbridge-Bulawayo road, according to the police there. The attackers got away with R100, a cellphone and a radio which they ripped out of the officer’s car parked nearby.
According to the police, another man from the same town was attacked last week by two men wielding a gun, who frisked him and took R2 000 and a cellphone before melting away into the bush.
Reacting to the attacks, Matabeleland South provincial police spokesperson Sergeant Loveness Mangena also warned the public against venturing out into secluded areas unaccompanied as they risked attacks. She added that there had been an increase in muggings and robberies in the town.
What Sergeant Mangena omitted to say was to give residents of Beitbridge a sense of security, even a modicum assurance of that, on what the police and other arms of State security were doing to prevent Beitbridge from being turned by criminals into a no-go area for visitors and investors in particular, in view of the reported rise in criminal activity in the town.
A usually reliable source told this writer from Beitbridge four days ago that the criminals who had besieged the town were outsiders from cities such as Harare and Bulawayo, “who targeted Beitbridge to steal money” from travellers arriving in the border town from the south. The source exonerated local residents.
Zimbabwe has for long been popular with foreign visitors for the unbounded hospitality of our people, so that foreign visitors returning home became the country’s goodwill ambassadors.
But attacks on innocent people belie the freedom that our people boast of as a value engendered by independence, and negate any hospitality that serves as a trump card for increased tourism and investment in the country.
In metaphorical terms, Beitbridge is to the rest of Zimbabwe what limb is to the human body. But while a limb with a wound that develops into a gangrene or becomes cancerous, can be amputated to prevent the rot spreading to the rest of the body and threatening life, Beitbridge cannot be dismembered from the rest of the Zimbabwean “body” in spite of the gangrene that has set in there, threatening the good image of the town and of the country as a whole.
If the beasts responsible for the social pathologies of muggings and robberies continue with their reign of terror — who knows — they might spread their terrorism to other towns and cities further inland with results ghastly to contemplate.
What this suggests is that security forces should swing into action, and be seen by the wider public to do so, with the support of every citizen to send a message to every comer of Zimbabwe that crime does not pay.
To begin with, the police and the army might wish to consider mounting joint clean- up operations in Beitbridge residential stands areas and in the town’s environs to rid the areas of unwanted elements hibernating there for purposes of perpetuating crime.
Other anti-crime measures may also be adopted by the security forces to get rid of highway robbers who waylay travellers, especially motorists, at lay-byes where people stop to relieve themselves, have a meal or to take a deserved rest in the course of their journey.
If nothing is done to safeguard journeys, a situation might develop whereby travellers might carry illegal weapons to protect themselves with the danger of abusing weapons, human frailty or depravity being what they are.
It would be very sad were Zimbabwe to degenerate into medieval times with outlaws into hideouts to rob travellers.
It may also be found necessary to carry out similar military and police sweeps through residential areas including squatter camps in other urban areas where criminals hold residents to ransom with accomplices also being subjected to the wrath of the law.
Such joint police and military operations were once carried out in Zambia during President Kenneth Kaunda’s rule with results that rampant crime was brought under control.
If the same is done in Zimbabwe, especially at night, and those harbouring criminals are also accounted for, a big start will have been made towards making lives and property safe as well as in protecting and enhancing Zimbabwe’s image as a land where you can travel by day and by night without being molested.
Apologists for the anti-social misfits might cite the country’s economic meltdown with a loss of jobs to justify crimes by locals, but no such or similar justification for wrong-doing will wash as any able-bodied Zimbabweans can form co-operatives or join informal traders who now earn an honest living through self reliance.
If on the other hand Zimbabweans eschew zero tolerance against violent crime, there is a real danger that the country could end up pariah-ed by the outside world with disastrous consequences.
Online Reporter