Sundaymail Editor
AN elderly woman buried her face in her hands in shame while sobbing uncontrollably as she narrated the horror she witnessed when she visited her late son Caleb’s home in the big city to check on her grandchildren.
Gogo Masinire was in deep anguish and wished the earth could just swallow her to save her from further embarrassment.
She blamed herself and her family, and even cursed the gods for forsaking her.
It was a “veduwee, veduwee” affair, or what is ordinarily referred to as “mahwani” in street lingo.
On arrival at her late son’s once-plush home, she was welcomed by tall grass, weeds and a stench that was so strong that it could even kill flies.
The roof looked as if it would cave in, while algae and weeds had colonised a portion of the wall.
There was no sign of life.
Not even a single chicken or barking dog could be seen in the yard.
Power and water supplies had long been disconnected due to failure to pay for the services, while her grandson, who remained at the property, was now taking drugs and had become a routine visitor at the police station, neighbours told her.
Her daughter-in-law had remarried and rarely visited.
When her eldest grandson, the only one who remains at the property, finally arrived, he could not recognise her.
He was so hopelessly inebriated that he threw himself onto a rickety bench that was on the veranda and fell asleep. Such was the challenge the elderly lady encountered.
However, drug abuse cases are not peculiar to Gogo Masinire’s family.
It seems the whole country is reeling from rising cases of drug abuse, where children are doing the unthinkable just to get high.
A workmate told me his elder brother’s son once finished a sizeable morsel of sadza, while mistaking the image of tomatoes imprinted on the plate as relish.
Reports abound that some children are selling household property and anything they can lay their hands on to buy drugs.
As I commit pen to paper, gentle reader, countless parents have approached the courts of law seeking to evict their own biological children because of the drug menace, which makes them vulgar and ungovernable.
Children are accusing parents of witchcraft, sjamboking them and even killing them as a result of the psychotic toll of drugs such as cough syrups, mutoriro, guka and mbanje.
Some homes have been turned into bases, where these children often abscond school to spend the day taking drugs. Girls are not excluded.
An elite Harare school, the Dominican Convent, recently expelled eight learners after they were caught with drugs during a leadership camp in Nyanga.
Clearly, there is a serious challenge of drug abuse.
It has become so ridiculous that even drivers now have to exercise extreme caution for fear of running over intoxicated individuals. The police are currently conducting a blitz to weed out drug dealers.
However, their efforts can only succeed if we lend them a hand.
We must join the fight to save our children. Let us all join the fight to curb drug abuse.
Inotambika mughetto.
_ Feedback: rosenthal.mutakati @ zimpapers.co.zw
Online Reporter