Online Reporter
Wallace Ruzvidzo
Herald Reporter
GOVERNMENT efforts to tame a rapid rise in crime are succeeding and beginning to bring levels down to a more manageable state, Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage Minister Kazembe Kazembe has said.
Delivering a lecture at the Zimbabwe National Defence University (ZNDU) in Harare yesterday, Minister Kazembe praised the police for doing “extremely well” in bringing crime under control, but warned that violent and cash-driven robberies remain a serious challenge.
“As I mentioned in the presentation, that the biggest problem that we have is people moving around with cash.
“You know, people now, they boast about having US$500 000 in their cars, US$100 000 in their cars.
“They are attracting crime, they are attracting robbers.
“Robbers will be tempted to go and help themselves to that kind of cash,” he said.
Minister Kazembe said police officers have been doing their best to tackle robberies and other violent crimes, and that arrests, including for murder, have been made, although not always at the pace Government would prefer.
He cautioned that multiple factors are driving rising murder rates, singling out drug abuse.
“People, when they’re intoxicated, they can do anything.
“So, those are some of the negative effects of drugs,” said the Home Affairs Minister.
Minister Kazembe said an Inter-Ministerial Committee on drugs established by President Mnangagwa was a central pillar of Government’s response.
The committee, he said, combines law enforcement efforts to cut supply, through arrests and busting syndicates, with demand-reduction initiatives from other ministries that offer alternatives for youth at risk of substance abuse.
“We have seen the Minister of Youth implementing the Zimbabwe National Youth Service Programme; we have seen the Minister of SMEs, women, they are also doing their utmost.
“We have seen the Ministry of Information, yourselves included, disseminating valuable information, awareness campaigns to try and dissuade people from the use of drugs,” said Minister Kazembe.
He framed Government’s crime strategy as a two-pronged approach — halting the surge in criminality before driving reductions.
“As I mentioned, when we set ourselves a target, we had to stop the rate of increase, which was alarming at some point, to manageable levels, before we then started reducing it in the direction that we would prefer.
“And we’ve done that extremely well,” Minister Kazembe said.
