NOTE: Below, we publish a letter from a Kwekwe-based Zwnews reader who is also a professional counselor with a local counseling and testing organisation. Here, he touches on the issue of the underreported issue of drug and substance abuse in the town.

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Thank You ZRP Amaveni Staff For Clampdown On Drug Abuse

Dear Editor,

I am an adult Zimbabwean and professionally trained counselor who hails from Amaveni Township in Kwekwe Town, Midlands Province.

Editor, before I delve into the core pursuit of this particular instalment, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to your online publication which is fast becoming the ,media house of choice for many of us here in Kwekwe as it regularly updates readers on what is going on in this part of the Midlands Province.

I urge you to keep the fire burning on your mission to keep Zimbabweans informed on the happenings down here.

NOW, Straight to my issue- many thanks for giving me space in your publication to also do the rarest of tracts characterising who I really am, as in my personal behaviour and characteristics.

And, this rare attribute pertains to NOT ONLY penning editorial letters to newspaper sites, but thanking the police, of all state security sectors in this landlocked southern African nation of ours.

Yet, I find myself, at this particular point in time, obliged to atypically say thumbs up to Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) officers from this area where drug and substance abuse has impacted on the youths from the African township.

Only this week, I was greatly humbled to bump into ZRP Amaveni Officer-in-Charge, a one Assistant Inspector Mawukazuva who accompanied his very subordinates deployed on an operation aimed at bringing some mushrooming mutoriro-peddling ‘bases’ where all-night smoking joints have become a tradition.

It is not commonplace in our Zimbabwe to come across committed principals in the template of Assistant Inspector Mawukazuva- leaders who lead from the front by actively committing to the groundwork demands of the profession in the stead of relying from subordinates’ feedback in the comfort of office couches.

With his team of predominantly male officers who include a one Kedha, a light-skinned constable, Comrade Mawukazuva made the rounds on various drug peddling bases where they literally cleansed the notorious places of substance abusers, most of whom are underaged secondary school drop outs who continue to grumble over the negative impact caused by the Covid-19 pandemic on their schooling.

In my investigations as not only a counseling expert, but also as a concerned resident born and bred in Kwekwe’s oldest township of Amaveni, I note with concern the far-reaching negative impact caused by the abuse of crystal methamphetamine by my little brothers whose future prospects lie in constant jeopardy.

The teenagers that I see moving during the night, commtiting all kinds of thefts- including hembe dzasiwa dziri pawaya, horsepipes, and all sorts of items have their future jeopardised and I want to urge VaMawukazuva and team to keep the spirit and halt substance abuse.

Our ghetto has great luminaries who are doing wonders across the sectors and Amaveni Police must be commended for their vicious approach to the fight against substance abuse

Thank You,

Phiri G, Amaveni

Zwnews