By Memory Mudzani
Zimbabwe is a youthful country with more than 60% youth population and these young people are supposed to be vibrant, mobile and full of creative ideas but rather they are the ones being involved in high crimes rates.
Since last year Zimbabwe have been recording an increase in youth crime rates and this has affected young people’s personal development.
In an interview with this publication McDonald Munyoro a male manager from National Association of Youth Organization (NAYO) said some of the statistics across the country show an increase in the rate of crime especially within the demographic of young people between the ages of 15 to 35 years as defined by the constitution .
He further said that some of the crimes have to do with issues like unemployment of young people, where young people constitute the biggest numbers of citizens that are unemployed, this means that economically they are socially excluded from opportunities that allow them to support their livelihood and for some of them out of desperation they end up engaging in criminal activities to support their livelihoods.
Munyoro also said that drug and substance abuse by young people has greatly increased and some of these young people feed their urge and their addictions when it comes to these drugs and substances by resorting to a lot of criminal activities where everything they pick or steal they then use it to get the next dose or supply in terms of drug abuse and substance abuse.
“We are living in the days where drug and substance abuse by young people has greatly increased and for some of these young people to feed their urge and their addictions when it comes to drugs and substances they resort to lot of criminal activities where everything they pick or steal they then use it to get the next dose or supply in terms of drug abuse and substance abuse, “said Munyoro
Munyoro further said that this widespread of drug abuse is happening across many communities ,simply because there are no facilities that are able to rehabilitate these young people ,he also said that the moment these young people fall through the cracks of society and become addicts they then fall into criminal gangs and criminal activities .
Benjamin Chigova from ministry of youth also said that an increase in drug and substance abuse is one of the main factor which has resulted in an increase in crime rates within the youths and he said that as a ministry they are doing drugs and substances abuse awareness campaigns, outreach training across Midlands province and also they are leading business conference to train young people to generate their own income.
Chigova also said that as the ministry they are also encouraging young people especially those who are school dropouts to join vocational training center so that they will be equipped with some skill that can help them develop themselves.
Munyoro also said that the issue of high criminal activities within communities across Zimbabwe needs to be addressed and arrested before it gets out of hand and one of the biggest solution is for the government to put in measures for the rehabilitation of young people who are using drugs or making use of substances in an abusive way because the moment these young people are rehabilitated, we push them away from engaging in criminal ways to sort of sustain their addiction.
“We also need to ensure that the government through section 20 of the constitution talks about the government being mandated to come up with programs for young people ,to protect them , to economically empower them, to create avenues for their education , for their participation if the government can roll out targeted intervention at young people that capture the spirit of section 20 , it could also do a lot to take some of these young people out of the criminal activities that they are doing, ” said Munyoro
Munyoro also said Zimbabwe prison service should do community awareness raising and reach outs that warn young people about the dangers of criminal activities or even working in conjunction with the court so that young people can also know that for every crime committed there is punishment for it, corruption is not a way to go you commit a crime you will be punished
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