By Evans Dakwa, News Editor
One of the trending stories in Zimbabwe this week has been the conviction and sentencing of young ladies who have been given the moniker “Hwedza 5” by the court of public opinion. The youngsters, aged between 16 and 19 years, were convicted on charges of cyberbullying, aggravated indecent assault, and unlawful detention and assault after they filmed themselves assaulting and inserting a stick into the private parts of the victim, Mavis Mada, aged 18.
Their filmed atrocity attracted widespread condemnation, and it is natural that after their conviction, the court of public opinion is pleased with the sentence, and rightfully so; no one can begrudge it for that. As I write this comment, there is not an inch of my mind that condones what the adolescent girls did. In fact, I condemn the despicable deed in the strongest terms, and the law was right to take its full course.
Do I sympathize with them? Yes, I do, for what they did shows they are misguided. The question is, who is supposed to guide them? Without much knowledge about their upbringing and the state of their homes, it does not take a rocket scientist to realize that the perpetrators are all victims of a broken society that has abdicated from its foundations.
The African way of bringing up children tells us it takes a village to raise a child, and the misdeeds of the quintet are an indictment on our society as a whole. A look at the ages of the accused shows us they are still kids, teenagers who are at an age of confusion, a period that requires proper guidance and counseling as they navigate towards adulthood, and clearly, they lacked it. Who is to blame for that?
One of the five, aged 17, is a mother of two already, meaning she is a victim of abuse. That’s a traumatic experience enough to make one very unstable. The legal age when one is supposed to be a mother in the country is 18, but she is a mother of two at 17 years. I am sure psychologists will agree with me that it is not far-fetched nor mythical that abuse begets abuse. She is a victim of abuse who is culturalized into abuse and is now meting out abuse on others; that’s the language she knows and understands.
Only two of the five will serve effective jail terms, with the three released into the custody of their guardians, which is a humane thing to do. My thoughts are with the other two as well. They are in dire need of support and care, counseling, and rehabilitation that will dig deeper into the scars they carry, which induced that uncouth behavior.
As sad as this chapter is, it is one that should remind our society how we have deviated from the norms and values that make us a people. Ubuntuism must be reignited and be at the center of how we raise our children; failure to do so might have consequences dire than the actions of the now-infamous Hwedza 5.