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Zimbabweans in the Diaspora, especially in the West, have suffered from cultural clashes and this has resulted in many losing their children to social workers.

It is a difficult time when your child is snatched away from you by the authorities, in most cases, never to be seen again. In some circumstances, you are forcibly taught how to look after your child by a person from a very different cultural background and who has never run a family. These “child snatchers” are employed to do so.

In all cases, they do so in the name of safeguarding children. They are called social workers and have departed from their call of duty and have become social tormentors.

But who really is a social worker and what is social work?

There are two main types of social workers. There are direct service social workers, who help people solve and cope with problems in their everyday lives and clinical social workers, who diagnose and treat mental, behavioural and emotional issues.

A social worker can work in a variety of settings, including mental health clinics, schools, hospitals and private practices. By nature, a social worker helps people cope with challenges in every stage of their lives.

They help with a wide range of situations such as adopting a child or being diagnosed with a terminal illness. Social workers work with many populations, including children, people with disabilities and people with addictions.

With the influx of Zimbabweans into the United Kingdom, social workers have gained notoriety in displacing families and destroying the basic human right which is a right to family life and or private life.

They have stretched their nose into peaceful family lives wrecking, them along the way. Social workers are supposed to offer counselling and advocacy to individuals and families and intervene when vulnerable people need safeguarding. But they have turned to be completely different people with pre-conceived agendas.

Social workers are supposed to support lots of people including older people, those with learning disabilities, physical disabilities and mental health conditions such as people with depression, anxiety, schizophrenia and personality disorders.

In essence, the role of a social worker is to improve the lives of the people they support, as well as their families.
Children can be referred to their local authority’s social care services for various reasons, including abuse, neglect, family dysfunction and disability or illness.

Social workers wield so much power and abuse a lot of it to the detriment of both parents and children.

We have selected a few cases to share regarding the social workers and our Zimbabweans in the diaspora. This week we will share John Chikadaya’s dilemma at the hands of social workers.

John is a Zimbabwean nurse residing in the UK with his wife and two children. His daughter is 15 and is in secondary school. John is a very strict Zimbabwean who tries hard to raise his children the Zimbabwean way. He has tried to make them remember home and cherish the values of Zimbabwe.

Life looked perfectly well for this family. One day John arrived home around 2pm. It was an early knock off and John was expecting an early rest.

He walked into his house and was surprised to find the doors unlocked.

At first he did not worry about it. In his area, it was safe to leave your doors unlocked because burglaries or any criminal activities were almost unheard of. He dragged his legs to his bedroom, anticipating to bury his head in the bed sheets and allow the blankets to massage him to sleep.

As he opened his bedroom door, he froze. His head started to spin at the drama unfolding in front of him. John could not breathe. He did not believe what met his eyes. His daughter aged 15 was being intimate with a white teenage boy in his bedroom. On hearing the noise of the door, the pair jumped up and sat on the bed.

John was about to open his mouth when his daughter said: “Dad what are you staring at? Can you not see that we are naked?” The words pierced through his heart with such a cruel sharp pain. Without thinking much, John removed his belt , advanced towards the pair and he whipped the two with such venom as he was so angry.

Fathers do not want to believe that their children do have sex and cannot imagine a 15-year-old child being intimate with someone in their bedrooms. The only way was to discipline both of them. The teenage boy escaped and managed to make a call to the police. Within five minutes, four police cars arrived with wailing sirens and flashing blue lights.

His house was surrounded. John was preparing to talk to the police and ask them to let the kids free since he had already dealt with them.

To his utmost surprise, the police told him he was under arrest. He was handcuffed and whisked away to a police station where he was charged with assault, aggravated assault, indecent assault and kidnapping. The police said by refusing his daughter to go out of the house he had kidnapped her. By walking into his bedroom and seeing the two naked, he committed a crime of indecent assault. John was further booked for assaulting the pair. He did not believe that it was happening. It was like a dream which would end.

John was kept overnight in police cells. His phones and laptop were all confiscated. The following morning he was told that he could only be released if he provided another address to go and stay.

He was not allowed to go back to his house as he was judged to be a danger to his children. John did not believe what was happening. He hoped he was going to wake up and dismiss all this as a dream. But it was not a dream.

Finally John had to go and stay with a church friend who offered him his sofa to sleep on. Dejected and very angry John, went to work and on his way to work, he received a call from a social worker. Some social workers have a very wrong belief that being rude is a show of authority.

The lady who called John was a rude and arrogant woman. He was rudely informed that his children had been placed under care. He was not allowed to see them.

His wife would look after the children. In all this, he was told to continue paying and providing for the very kids who were forcefully removed from him.

John was more than shocked. He walked into his ward at his work place. Before handover and takeover, John was called by his shift manager. He was informed that a referral has been forwarded to the NMC, which is a regulatory board for nurses in the UK. He was on suspension with immediate effect.

Before he could ask a question, he saw three angry faces approaching. They were the security people at the hospital. John was escorted like a criminal out of the hospital. He was not to go back home as he was given a prohibition order. The report by the social worker depicted John as a sadist who was torturing children who were playing adults in his own bedroom.

John had to go back to the friend’s house not knowing how long he would stay there. Three days later John’s wife called him to tell him that there was a letter from the Home Office which was cancelling his visa because he had committed a crime and was therefore, an undesirable element.

He was now deemed to be a foreign criminal and liable for detention and removal from the UK. John stared at his phone not knowing what had hit him. In John’s culture, a daughter was not allowed to engage in sexual activities before marriage.

The greatest taboo was that the daughter used her father’s bedroom for her pleasure. With all this clouding his head, John was given a social worker who did not understand his cultural norms.

Being in the UK is not all roses. If John was in Zimbabwe, his daughter would be in bandages for a long time.
For just trying to discipline his child, John lost everything. Social workers sometimes do not even wish to understand your background when they investigate matters. Next week we will share the story of Maurice Mandeya who lost his four children because of his religious beliefs.

Names used here are not real to protect the identity of those involved.