Chronicle Editor
Michael Magoronga, [email protected]
AUTHORITIES in Kwekwe City have teamed up to round up and remove mentally challenged people and street kids off the streets for the safety of the public.
This follows the fatal attack on a Redcliff man by a mentally challenged man who lived on the streets in Kwekwe.
The Kwekwe city centre has lately been registering a growing number of violent mentally challenged people and street urchins who are in the habit of harassing and attacking people, especially women.
Street kids, most of them underaged, are often seen consuming drugs in public before going round the streets of Kwekwe making noise; banging on buildings and forcibly grabbing items from unsuspecting targets.
As a result the Kwekwe City Council, Social Development Department, Zimbabwe Republic Police and other departments have since teamed up to remove these people from the streets.
Kwekwe City director of housing and community services Mr Edson Chiyangwa confirmed the development saying they were doing this for the safety of the public.
“Following the death of the man who was attacked by the mentally challenged man last week, we saw it fit to remove them from the streets for safekeeping. We thought we could co-habit with them but it seems it’s not working so we have to remove them from the streets as they have become a danger to society,” he said.
Mr Chiyangwa said so far, they have removed about 25 people from the streets.
“We have taken them to Kwekwe General Hospital where they will be stabilized before being transferred to Gweru where there is a much bigger mental home. We could have kept them in Kwekwe but due to overwhelming numbers, we have decided to take them to Gweru,” he said.
He said the street kids will also be transferred to a home in Chiredzi.
“We removed the bulk of them last week but they ran away and returned to the streets but we will continue to remove them from the public so that the public are safe from the violent children,” said Mr Chiyangwa.
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