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Stephen Mpofu
Is Zimbabwe experiencing an upsurge of crime now more than it ever did in the past?
Specifically, are crimes of passion in which bestial, older men sexually ravage girls including their own relatives, and violent crimes in which all manner of weapons are used features of postmodern Zimbabwe?
The questions above have come to the fore especially after a High Court judge called on Monday this week for the creation of a data base for all persons convicted of sexual abuse to monitor them upon their release from jail.
Justice Martin Makonese, of Bulawayo, also said when opening the Gweru High Court circuit that there was a high increase in brutal killings committed by persons of both sexes in the country in spite of lengthy sentences imposed in cases of a violent nature.
To begin with, it can be said with equanimity that the various types of crime mentioned by the judge did also occur in the past, but that they were not as widely exposed as they are today through publicity in newspapers, on radio and television as well as on social media.
Secondly, numerical strength comes into it with the country’s population having vastly increased so that the number of offenders may now be said to be commensurate with the numbers of people now vying for space and livelihood in the country.
But what exactly are the causative factors of the crimes by which Zimbabwe is riven and which apparently cause consternation in both judicial and social circles and compelling people to look over their shoulders for any potential criminal on their heels?
Sociologists and communicologists concur that globalisation – compressing the world through mass communication into a global village – must share the blame for social discontinuities now prevalent in African societies, including our own, with coherencies in social values seriously disrupted by urbanisation and Westernisation.
It is unarguable that moral decadents associated with Western societies tends in the centre, or urban areas, to dilute the spirit of ubuntu or the togetherness of Africans who move away from the periphery, or rural areas and into the towns and cities, the white man’s so-called centre of knowledge and wisdom.
The urban drift, often whipped up by poverty in the communal lands, results in people forgoing their ubuntu and copying alien values to the extent that respect for life is lost in some cases as the new urbanites are exposed to violent crimes, prostitution and other social ills introduced to them either through the small television screen or that of the bigger cinema world.
It is therefore no accident that crimes of passion as well as those involving violence with all kinds of dangerous weapons being used in committing the offences are more prevalent in urban areas than in the village set up to which, unfortunately, urban dwellers returning to the village export some of the vices with which they have become compatible partners.
Justice Makonese had this blood-curdling reality to say to law-abiding Zimbabwean citizens: “we now live in a society where the respect for human life for some people simply does not exist.”
Professor Claude Mararike, Acting Chairman in the University of Zimbabwe’s Department of Sociology, concurred with the judge’s remark on the disrespect for life by some Zimbabweans. In fact, Prof Mararike said some people now resorted to crime as a means of earning a living.
Both he and communicologist Felix Moyo, Director of Marketing and Information at the National University of Science and Technology in Bulawayo, called for massive education as a way of bringing sanity to the country in the wake of the various crimes being committed and with both men stressing the need for the re-enforcement of the spirit of ubuntu among Zimbabweans in order for them to respect life as well as the dignity of fellow Zimbabweans.
This writer, a communicologist, like Moyo, as well as a student of Sociology, can say that our society has become riven by crime with young people getting involved in anti-social behaviour because socialisation of one’s offspring in the home has become a thing of the past for many families.
As a result young people grow up without a strong moral code to guide then, hence their increased indulgence in criminal activity.
Moyo did point out that in the past children in this country grew up under the strong guidance and influence of three institutions – the family, the school and the Church, all of which instilled fear of the law and of God as values of uprighteousness, respect and acceptance in society.
There was therefore a strong need for a return to the drawing board by the institutional trio to put society back on even keel in so far as respect for both the sanctity of life and the rights of other human beings to enjoy their space without disruption by criminal elements in our society are concerned.
It is in this respect that all forms of education become pivotal in the fight against all forms of crime that tend to paint an ugly image of the country in the eyes of the outside world with the possibility of making Zimbabwe a panacea especially to potential investors and tourists both of whose money we sorely need for the growth of our economy.
Equally critical, both Professor Mararike and Moyo stated, churches that believe in children being given up for marriage or sexual relations with older people must desist from their wayward thinking especially after the highest court in the land, the Constitutional Court, ruled recently that marriage of girls under 18 years of age is illegal.
That landmark ruling cascades downwards, automatically outlawing the present legal age of consent set at 16 years, so protecting young girls from sexual perverts stalking them around the country, as a beast stalks prey in the veld.
Prof Mararike also said that while the setting up of a register for employers to check on the criminal records of former convicts might well be the right thing to do in the eyes of some people, it did not follow that the offenders, murderers for instance, did not repent after serving their jail terms to again resort to the same crimes for which they were punished.
All forms of education was therefore critical to keep everyone on the right side of the law and of acceptable society norms as a way of curbing any disequilibrium that criminal activity is wont to cause in any society.
Online Reporter