ZANU PF Member of Parliament for Rushinga, Tendai Nyabani, has urged government to impose life sentences on drug lords, arguing that they are destroying the nation’s youth and fuelling a crisis that has reached epidemic levels.
This comes at a time the nation is reeling from a surge in drug and substance abuse, which has crippled communities, and left thousands of young people trapped in addiction.
Recently, Vice President Constantino Chiwenga led a public anti-drug campaign in Harare’s Highfield suburb, where government pledged to intensify efforts to combat the scourge that has torn apart families and communities.
Speaking on a point of national interest in the National Assembly last Tuesday, Nyabani said Zimbabwe could not afford leniency on drug dealers, whom he equated to warlords.
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The MP’s call follows Youth Minister Tino Machakaire’s recent bombshell that senior government and ruling party officials are implicated in smuggling drugs into the country, worsening a scourge that has ravaged communities and ruined young lives.
“My point of national interest is that firstly, I want to thank His Excellency Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa, for the work that he is doing in trying to curb the drug pandemic.
“We can equate these drugs to the wars that are taking place in Ukraine because drugs are killing our children,” said Nyabani, warning that the crisis was threatening Zimbabwe’s future.
According to NewZimbabwe, the lawmaker stressed that drug syndicates were increasingly using sophisticated methods, including drones, to push narcotics into the country, calling for a firm presidential stance to ensure they are jailed for life.
Nyabani insisted that the country’s “return to former glory” depended on protecting young people from addiction and criminal networks that profit from their misery.
