Imbibers also prefer the illicit brew due to its high alcohol content, which is said to be 40 percent.

Addressing the media in Bulawayo recently, Ndibali warned that if nothing is done to ban the sale of njengu, “people are going to be falling like flies” in the next few years. He said:

Our community is dying, people are killing themselves because of this thing where you hear people asking each other, ‘ikhona yini’ (is it available) or you hear them say, ‘ulayo’ (do you have it).’

They are talking about njengu. Njengu is killing our parents in the villages, our brothers and sisters across the country.

The government must do something and very quickly. You may not see the harm that is happening caused by njengu.

It started about three to five years ago but in the next 10 years you will see people are going to be falling like flies because of this njengu.

Please leave njengu alone because you are going to die and leave your children. Njengu is destroying communities.

Illicit alcohol has proliferated across the country over the past few years especially during the COVID-19-induced lockdowns when bars and bottle stores were closed. | CITE