Firebrand Norton legislator Temba Mliswa has downplayed the current police blitz against illicit drugs saying the government is complicit in the emergence of the scourge that has ravaged communities across the country.
The Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) recently launched a blitz dubbed ‘No to drugs and illicit Substance’ which is targeting drug syndicates responsible for keeping the supply chain of illicit substance running.
Posting on Twitter, Mliswa said as long as the approach does not address the root problem, the country will continue on what he said circles of rhetoric and rituals.
“The police, among many civil servants, are struggling and these drug operations will ultimately fail because the crimes have become means of survival for them. The police will not go all out against their avenues of survival.
“After the fanfare and noise is gone they will compromise and resort to their usual ways. Govt is ultimately complicit in the emergence of these problems because it’s failing to properly and adequately pay its workers. As long as the approach misses the crux of the problem and focuses on the visible but merely symptomatic, then we will continue going in circles of rhetoric and rituals.
“The nub of the drugs problem, corruption, inefficiency in Government etc all go back to Government. A dysfunctional system is very much bedrock for the kind of social& economic turmoil we are facing. As long as it persists the many commissions, agreements& operations will end up as hot air. Let’s be practical and candid by facing and squaring up to the real issues. A whole generation is being destroyed and with it our future as a country,” Mliswa said.
Police were prompted into action after the shock expulsion of eight Advanced Level pupils at Harare’s Dominican Convent High School were busted with drugs during a school trip recently.
According to the ZRP, 636 suspects have so far been nabbed across the country.
