LINDA MASARIRA : WHEN MY SISTER'S SON WAS CAUGHT WITH DRUGS

This morning, I was confronted with a painful yet sobering reality of how deep the drug and substance abuse crisis has crept into our communities. A 16-year-old boy, my sister’s son, was caught with drugs in Warren Park in the early hours of the day. As a responsible guardian and citizen, I took it upon myself to engage with him, determined to understand how he got involved and who was supplying him with these harmful substances.

After a difficult and emotional conversation, we uncovered the identity of the dealer. We traced the source to a residence in Warren Park, and what I witnessed left me shaken to the core.

The alleged supplier’s household was a site of constant trauma. The family shared harrowing stories of police raids, abusive drug buyers, and sleepless nights filled with dread and anxiety. When the suspect returned home, we intervened and restrained him before alerting the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP). Upon conducting a search of the premises, the police recovered skunk, bronclear, and mutoriro.

The arrest of the dealer is not where the story ends. It’s where another one begins.

One of his daughters, a 19-year-old young woman with excellent O-Level results including Mathematics, broke down in tears in my car. She narrated the abuse, fear, and hopelessness they have lived with because of her father’s involvement in the illicit drug trade. Despite her academic brilliance, she was denied further education under the pretext of financial strain. Their mother, hypertensive and ailing, has been enduring unimaginable emotional and physical suffering. The youngest child is in ECD, and even that basic education is now a struggle to maintain. She also has another child in Form 1 who fortunately got a scholarship this year, and she often struggles with transport fare for him.

This is a stark reminder that drug abuse is not only destroying users. It is tearing apart the homes of the very people who peddle these drugs, often leaving their children vulnerable, traumatised, and robbed of a future.

🔴 IMMEDIATE INTERVENTIONS

In response to this deeply personal and disturbing experience, I am taking the following immediate actions:

▪︎ I have committed to sponsoring her return to either A-Level or Polytechnic, depending on her preference, to help her realise her dreams.

▪︎ I am reaching out to counselling centres and social welfare institutions to arrange trauma healing sessions, family counselling and psychological support for the mother and siblings.

▪︎ I will be engaging @PoliceZimbabwe

 and Warren Park leadership to advocate for increased community surveillance, sensitive handling of affected families, and better support for whistleblowers.

▪︎ I am appealing to the public, churches, and civil society to step in and assist this family, particularly in addressing the mother’s health needs and the young child’s school requirements.

Going forward, we shall be launching a drug-affected families rescue initiative as part of the Linda Tsungirirai Masarira Foundation, we will be piloting a “Family Rescue Fund” to assist children and spouses of drug dealers and addicts who are often forgotten casualties in the war against drugs.

Let it be known that the war on drugs is not just a police matter. It is a national humanitarian crisis. We must fight it with compassion, not just criminalisation. Our children are being lost to skunk, mutoriro, and bronclear. Our communities are becoming breeding grounds of hopelessness. We must intervene decisively. She was writing on X

Posted in: NEWS