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Perspective Stephen Mpofu
NEWS of the arrest of 224 pupils near Bulawayo for taking part in a bizarre binge with booze, drugs and orgies of sex on the menu makes one’s mouth drop to the ground. Yes, when children as young 13 years engage in actions that promote drug abuse and promiscuity, the practice certainly renders one mum with shock and disbelief.
And yet there was and there have been similar cases before when pupils have taken it upon themselves to exercise a kind of sovereignty that made them step out of the boundary with impunity to do crazy things.
The latest incident happened at Umguza Rest Camp on the outskirts of Bulawayo. Police say they intercepted some of the pupils on a kombi taking them to the venue of the vuzu party and the law enforcement agents who warned that parents risked arrest for not taking good care of their children, say they discovered condoms and almost every brand of liquor that is on the market during the raid on the pupils.
Contemporary leaders in this country often tell the youth that they are Zimbabwe’s future leaders but when young people, such as the ones in point regard alcohol, drugs and immorality as their basic definition of life, it is impossible for them to carry on their pliable backs, the name Zimbabwe and all that it stands for in the wider world.
There are many questions that beg for answers here, and one of them is where are the parents when such youths resort to despicable anti-social acts, such as vuzu parties? And anyway, who supplies the young offenders with condoms or with the money to buy these as well as drinks, not to mention the cash with which they use to book venues for their binges?
There is no doubt some parents will find a scapegoat by blaming the Church for not doing its work by bringing the children to God. But, that kind of passing the buck remains untenable since in the eyes of God the home is a church with parents, fathers in particular, expected to play an active role in the fatherhood ministries of Priest, whereby they draw their offspring closer to God; as prophets who bring God to their families; and as governors or rulers who ensure that their families plant their foot on the line and walk the line of good behaviour in upholding moral, social and Christian values.
It would appear here that parents whose children have violated the law of the land have failed lamentably to live up to their expectations as primary agents of socialisation to raise their families in ways that accord with normative values of mainstream Zimbabwean society.
This pen is not at all thrusting the stick into the hands of parents to chastise their wayward children; on the contrary, it invokes the fear of God, a fear of the wrath of the Almighty that is visited upon those who espouse waywardness.
This pen urges parents to lean into the house of God, the Church, for spiritual guidance or into the cord of normative values in order to raise children into responsible adult citizens in a world that is increasingly falling into the grip of disorder socially, politically and militarily.
Zimbabwe has a high reputation as a literate nation, but this fame cannot continue to remain intact if young people who are supposed to uphold high educational standards become alcohol and drug addicts as well as sex perverts.
But, of course, some will put the alleged crime of the arrested youths and others still at large down to juvenile delinquency yet, in reality, parents or adults are precursors of what is sucking in their children and are therefore adult delinquents themselves.
As such the parents of the arrested pupils deserve to face the music, as police said, by having the law book thrown at them for child negligence and, made to serve their jail terms together with their children if both are convicted.
If that happens, it will chill the spines of other negligent parents as well as the spines of the young delinquents themselves.
But not only that, any facility anywhere in the country which provides a venue for young people to hold vuzu parties should also be made answerable to the law of the land for abetting crime.
Thirdly, it may be necessary to deter other pupils if those found guilty of an offence committed during vuzu binges are expelled for putting the name of their school into disrepute.
Above all, Zimbabwe and other countries in the world are at war with HIV/Aids.
Events in which young boys and girls take part in sexual activities under a false belief of protection using condoms, such as those on which the police stumbled upon last Saturday, have the potential for propagating Aids and death is certain for those involved.
The blitz by the police in the case of the latest vuzu binges is commended and should be intensified to bring sanity and health protection to would be offenders.
Online Reporter