Jiti musician, Baba Harare, whose real name is Braveman Chizvino, says awareness campaigns to highlight the dangers of drug abuse being carried out by authorities are a waste of time.

Posting on Twitter, Baba Harare said Zimbabwean youths are now devoid of hope and what is needed as a matter of urgency is to prove to young people that things can be better. He said:

Madrug awareness campaign aya is a waste of time. We all are aware of the drug pandemic. We need prevention strategies and meaningful activities.

Waking up in Zimbabwe sober as a youth is painful. Urgent instillation of hope is required.

On 26 January 2023, Dominican Convent High School expelled eight Form six learners after they were caught using illicit drugs during a school trip to Nyanga from the 12th to the 15th of January

Sister Kudzai Mutsure, head of the Upper School at the Convent, said a disciplinary committee found the girls guilty of violating the school’s drug policy.

Shadaya Knight, a social media personality on Friday said punishing drug addicts and drug awareness campaigns are a waste of time as long as those who smuggle the drugs into the country are roaming free. He tweeted:

Arresting drug addicts & expelling school kids caught with drugs doesn’t solve the drug problem one bit. Neither those useless drug awareness campaigns.

If you don’t want drugs in communities & schools, go to the source – the kingpins who are smuggling & manufacturing them.

But we all know that can never happen because those very same kingpins, some of them are the ones who are supposed to be the custodians of the law or are in cahoots with those supposed to be enforcing the laws. And at the same, a drug-ravaged youth population is easy to control.

And so unless as a society (the communities, NGOs & lawmakers & enforcers) sit at the same table & take the necessary measures, this is a problem not going anywhere anytime soon. Learn or perish!

On Monday, Bulawayo’s Entumbane community in partnership with the police, local schools and other stakeholders marched to raise awareness of the dangers of drug abuse.

The campaign followed the arrest, in the suburb, of three suspected drug dealers, one of them an ex-police officer, following a raid at their houses.