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Tendai Rupapa in MASHONALAND WEST

FIRST LADY Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa has escalated the war against drug abuse by leading in the formation of committees in Mashonaland West Province that will work closely with police, her office and provincial minister’s office in a first of its kind bold move to fight the scourge that is threatening the future of youths.

The seven-member committees are constituency-based and would be taken to all the country’s provinces.

The mother of the nation, who is also the country’s health ambassador with a passion for the welfare of the country’s citizenry, is leaving no stone unturned in ensuring youths keep away from mischief and contributed significantly to economic development.

“This issue of forming committees has started here in Mashonaland West province and will be replicated in all the provinces. We did this so that we work closely with the police and the provincial minister’s office in fighting this challenge which is ruining our children.

“Imi pachenyu muri mapurisa in your communities naizvozvo report vese varikuita zvemadrugs vachitengesera vana. The formed committees will be the watchdogs and utilising the toll free 575 in my office so that we remove bad apples in our communities. We hope this will help fix the future of our children,” she said emphatically.

Men have their committees while women and youths separately have theirs.

Yesterday, the First Lady held an over-subscribed engagement with thousands of men, including 30 traditional chiefs from Mashonaland West Province, to alert them on the need for regular health checks, fight gender-based violence and sow the seeds of peace, love and harmony in communities.

She acknowledged the presence of female councillors who attended the event in support of her valuable programmes which are beneficial to the whole nation.

Dr Mnangagwa said as mothers they had a common goal of preserving peace in communities and counselling children.

There were also a number of people including men and women who openly confirmed they were former members of the opposition party and had attended Amai Mnangagwa’s programmes which are non-partisan to benefit from her wise counsel as the mother of the nation.

“Chiefs and all men, allow me to stand before you as your daughter and daughter-in-law discussing with you. In the olden days it was rare to see a woman addressing men, women were not allowed to stand before men, but today I humbly seek your permission to stand before you as we discuss various issues affecting us today.

“In the morning we had engagements with our children in the Nhanga/Gota/Ixhiba whom we taught many things which they understood. Our children have been destroyed by drugs and this is among many issues that have resulted in us gathering with men today because this affects us as parents.

“As a child grows, they copy the way their parents do things. The children are saying parents no longer have time with us and won’t even ask where I will be coming from if I return home at night.

“They are saying parents are fighting in front of us which affects them psychologically and they end up taking drugs through peer pressure. So as parents, how are we living in our homes?

“Some mothers are selling drugs to children while some of the kids manufacture the drugs on their own. Our children’s internal organs are finished because of intoxicating substances.

“They do not help at home, except stealing goods and livestock which they sell to buy drugs. This is not a laughing matter and let’s put our heads together for the future of our children, this is not about politics but the health and future of our children,” she said.

 

Dr Mnangagwa spoke candidly against gender-based violence (GBV).

“Vana baba, what should we do because statistics are showing that you are beating up women. I humble myself before you and ask what we should do to end violence in the home.

“I also heard about women who are starting violence, but they deny this saying they only fight back in self defence. So how shall we end this and who is starting violence?” she asked.

Her question elicited many and varied responses with women blaming men and vice versa.

Ms Prisca Steel (37) said she cannot remain quiet while being beaten.

“I fight back because he would have gotten drunk using my money from odd jobs and starts beating me up. I won’t accept this and we pummel each other,” she said, triggering laughter.

Another discussant, Mrs Prochious Matara, blamed violence squarely on men.

“Men start violence in the home. If he has a small house and you dare to ask, you die for this. You are mercilessly crushed like a snake in the home. Some of us who go to church follow the church doctrine of being submissive which we teach each other during Thursday meetings kuChina chemadzimai where we teach others not fight men back but kutaura nehunyoro uchipodza hasha dzababa.

“As a God-fearing woman, you should appear as if you have water in the mouth when your husband raises his voice at you. Fighting back is never a solution. Domestic violence should never be tolerated in homes.

“Thank you Amai for coming up with this programme of engaging men who are the main perpetrators of violence,” she said.

Mrs Precious Munyaradzi said both men and women must choose their friends wisely because some friends were out to destroy homes.

In her view, Mrs Joyce Chembe, said couples must always solve their differences amicably.

“As a woman I agree to stay at the rural home farming as the husband works in town. But when I harvest, the husband will come and collect the money to spend with a girlfriend or marry a second wife without even paying lobola for me? Is that fair Amai. This triggers violence and I will surely fight back,” she said.

Amai Mnangagwa asked men on their responses and views and got a lot of interesting responses.

Mr Josphat Mudhakwa said: “Amai, we marry these wives as smart people, but this ends the moment they enter the house. She will spend the whole day with pulling socks on the head without bathing and refuses to cook for me. Ko kugeza kwehumhandara kwakaendepi. Can I not go to another woman who cares for me?”

Mr Nicholas Mugombi said wives have mouths that are pricky like nails.

“They talk too much and have no respect in the home. They liken us to dogs and we show them that dogs bite and they run to the police station without acknowledging that they would have started the fight by verbally abusing us calling us dogs,” he said.

The First Lady implored women to appreciate their social position an urged men to accept being corrected and live happily while raising children together.

Mr Thomas Mugandani said the denial of conjugal rights was behind most cases of violence in the home.

“The issue of denying each other conjugal rights is causing domestic violence. Some women will prefer using our children’s bedroom leaving me alone in our bedroom, triggering violence.

“When we go to the police no one states that the fight was triggered by the quest for conjugal rights. We grew up being told that men want to be entertained by women, but they are always moody in the bedroom. They also use the bedroom as a courtroom where you are asked stories that occurred last month or last year,” he said to applause.

Mrs Failess Matemba from the First Lady’s office highlighted the success of the First Lady’s 575 toll-free line to curb domestic violence.

She said the National Gender-based Violence Call Centre had noted that triggers of gender-based violence included infidelity in cases where the husband did not want to be questioned about his affairs and his responsibility as a father and husband.

She also included financial constraints: “Where the husband is the financial backbone of the family and as a result assumes an authoritarian approach to his wife and children. In an effort to address this, the First Lady has rolled various empowerment projects and life skills training for women countrywide so that they can offer spousal support to their husbands.”

Statistics gathered from calls received to date, she said, pointed to the male gender being the majority of gender-based violence perpetrators.

“The unfortunate part is gender-based violence does not only affect the parties involved but the entire family set up which includes children from the nucleus and extended family, thus spreading conflict,” she said.

Speaking at the same occasion, National Aids Council (NAC) chief executive Dr Bernard Madzima who was represented by Mr Nyamurera, hailed the First Lady for her interventions which were paying off for the country.

“As NAC we thank you for the work you are doing countrywide. As health Ambassador you are assisting us greatly through your outreach programmes where you encourage people to regularly get checked health wise.

“In Mashonaland West we have many challenges like children dropping out of school. In 2021 we had 586 children who dropped out of school and out of these 287 were married at a tender age. From January 2022 to date we have 327 cases of dropouts. GBV cases in 2021 we had 27 984 reported cases while many go unreported,” he said.

Dr Madzima said this year alone, 800 people had reported domestic violence cases and expressed hope that the trend would change following the First Lady’s visit.

“With your visit we expect this will be a thing of the past. We thank you for coming to engage men who are mainly the perpetrators of domestic violence,” he said.

Mashonaland West Provincial Affairs and Devolution Minister Mary Mliswa-Chikoka thanked the First Lady for her well thought-out programmes.

“Amai as Mashonaland West we are grateful for the programmes you bring us time and again. Cases like GBV or drug abuse are worrying. We thank you for your love in trying to preserve our families and children. You have seen it fit for us to have an engagement with men as heads of households to solve the problem of violence and child marriages.

“Some women are heating oil and using it to fight their spouses. Our children have been enslaved by drugs because parents are always fighting and have no time to train children. Child marriages are a challenge in this province and we hope this has come to an end with your arrival. Thank you Amai for your vision. You have the nation at heart and have come to fix our home of Mashonaland West,” she said.

Chief Ngezi, Mr Peter Pasipamire, thanked the First Lady for her visit to the province.

“We thank you for your visit with such and important programme. As chiefs we were troubled by relentless fights in families and we stand with you working together in fighting violence in the homes and issues like drug abuse and child marriages,” he said.

A representative of the Ministry of Health and Child Care touched on the issue of men who do not visit health centres for checks.

He spelt out the need for people to get tested for various ailments regularly and encouraged men to also visit hospitals for check-ups on Non-Communicable Diseases.

The First Lady took the girls who attended the Nhanga session and went to kneel before the chiefs handing over hampers to them thus teaching the girls manners.

She showed the girls how it is done.

Amai Mnangagwa also gave some goodies to those who attended the programme.

IYASA, a Bulawayo based group, provided edutainment with a performance that portrayed the effects of domestic violence.