By Rex Mphisa
SOME Beitbridge residents have asked the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) to arrest all people exhibiting abnormally intoxicated signs likely related to drugs and substance to establish their sources of stuff now harmful to society.
Beitbridge residents have also been warned against numerous people living in drains along the highway and near the Dulivhadzimu Stadium involved in “snatch and dash” thefts targetted at unsuspecting people walking alone.
This information was released during a recent Crime and Liaison Committee (CLC) Meeting at the Municipality of Beitbridge recently.
Some stakeholders suggestes drug and substance abusers could be apprehended under sections of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform Act (Chapter 9:23) related to being a public nuisance.
That law specifies that anyone who commits any of the actions listed in the Act’s Third Schedule is guilty of criminal nuisance and is liable to a fine or imprisonment for up to six months.
During this incaceration it would be easier to bargain with suspects and the accused to reveal their sources of drugs and other substances leading to the arrest of druglords and a subsequent end a scourge threatening most youths in Zimbabwe.
“There must must a section of the law that addresses this and it can be used if we are keen on ending this drug and substance abuse,” Zimborders executive Nqobile Ncube said contributing to the CLC meeting.
A number of Beitbridge businessmen, members of different Residents Associations, civil servants and other stakeholders attended the lively meeting.
Observations were made that several youths in Beitbridge have turned to drugs and there are known suppliers but these have not easily been arrested making some community members feel they were untouchable.
“We have known bases in Beitbridge where theyouths are supplied. If fese people are arrested we will be in the right direction,” Mlaleli Ndlovu of Beitbridge Residents Association.
Beitbridge faces severe exposure to drugs due to its position as a major transit and border town ere more than 10 000 people are in transit daily.
At its peak Beitbridge handles up to 30 000 travellers a day.
This relentless flow of cross-border traffic makes illicit substances readily available locally while of late there has been an upsurge in drug trafficking with authorities intercepting contraband almost weekly.
The CLC meeting discussed several other avenues which could be explored to curb drug abuse in the border town of 60 000 people most of whom have been made redundant by new developments in the border post that have cut employment.
Beitbridge is devoid of industries and is failing to absorb school leavers into formal employment forcing frustrated youths to turn to illegal activities in their attemps to hussle. Some of these include selling of drugs.
The community grapples with high abuse rates, but authorities are continually intensifying interdiction efforts.
Of late large amounts of dagga have been intercepted in the bordsr and highways leading out of Beitbridge where banned cough syrup have also been intercepted.
The ClC meeting also heard of sevetal people deported from South Africa suspected of turning to crime to raise fares either ro return to South Afica or go back to their homes most of the time far away from, Beitbridge home.
“Several people live in these drainages and are responsible for plain and at times violent robberies to unsuspecting people walking alone where they snatch and run thefts,” said a stakeholder.
Some residens of Dulivhadzimu showed Ziyah News Network a number of sites where some of these youths lived and here they preyed on unsuspecting people mostly women walking from the border towards the bus terminus.
In one of the drains there were some bags of cement most likely stolen from some places near the Dulivhadzimu Bus Terminus.