Online Reporter
Victor Maphosa
Mashonaland East Bureau
MASHONALAND East Province will on Saturday hold a fundraiser in Marondera to mobilise resources to fight drug and substance abuse.
The event will be held at the provincial Agriculture Show Society grounds in Marondera.
In an interview with Zimpapers ahead of the programme, Mashonaland East Provincial Affairs and Devolution Minister Advocate Itayi Ndudzo highlighted the importance of this event.
“Mashonaland East Province will convene an important fundraising interactive forum,” he said.
“The intention is to fulfill the expectations of President Mnangagwa on the declaration that was made that Zimbabwe has reached a stage where we need to combat, eradicate and mitigate the harsh effects of drug and substance abuse.
“As you are aware, in every part of our country, we have challenges where most of our young people are taking drugs and abusing illicit substances and this is destroying livelihoods, families and economic ecosystem of our nation.
“The President has already launched the fundraising campaign at State House where stakeholders from the corporate sector and the political sector convened and made their contributions. In the spirit of devolution, we are bringing the same programme to Mashonaland East province on August 2, 2025.”
Advocate Ndudzo said they have invited traditional leaders, senators, legislators, ministers from this province, farmers, miners, manufacturers, our development partners, well-wishers, including the clergy, men and women from all walks of life in our province to come and make a contribution in cash or kind.
“The objective is for us to have resources that will enable us to tackle the challenge of drug and substance abuse in Mashonaland East Province,” he said.
Advocate Ndudzo said the intention is to cut and decimate all the supply chains of illicit drugs and substances.
“We want to be able to nab all the culprits, everyone who is involved in any way in the supply and trade of drugs and substances,” he said.
“We want resources to be used to identify and apprehend them and to successfully prosecute them. We also want to be able to launch a big campaign across the province to educate people on the harmful effects of drug abuse, so we need resources towards that.
“We also have victims of drug and substance abuse, so they need rehabilitation. We want to ensure in every district, we have a fully functional and capacitated rehabilitation centre with necessary medical resources to rehabilitate our people so that they can be reintegrated into the community and make meaningful contributions to our economy as a nation.”
Online Reporter