“IT is painful to watch my child being destroyed by drugs,” Memory Ndoro sobs uncontrollably as she narrates her son’s addiction to crystal meth.
NYASHA CHINGONO
Once a healthy and promising young man, Melvin*, who worked on a cruise ship in Europe, has become a pale shadow of his former self.
Emaciated, blood-shot eyed and always craving for a fix of crystal meth, Melvin has gone from grace to grass in just a year.
He blew all his savings on the addictive drug, eventually selling his only car for a pittance to fund his cravings.
The 26-year-old has traded most of his clothes and often disappears at night, looking for a fix in nearby bases.
“I do not sleep when he is not at home. I have become hypertensive from constant stress, and it is eating me up. This is not how he should have turned out,” Ndoro laments.
It is 11am in St Mary’s Chitungwiza where the abuse of crystal meth and other deadly substances has become very rampant among youths, destroying families as parents fail to cope with the effects of drugs.
Ndoro narrates how Melvin got hooked onto dangerous narcotics during Zimbabwe’s first Covid-19 lockdown last year.
Melvin had come home for a short break when Covid-19 ballooned into a global pandemic.
Stuck in Zimbabwe with no prospects of going back on the cruise, Melvin turned to drugs and has been hooked ever since.
“My child is everything I have. How will I survive if he does not go back to work? I used to go to South Africa to trade, but my son asked me to stop and assured me that he would take care of me. I never lack anything when he is working, so seeing him in this situation hurts me. I really want him to stop doing drugs, he needs help. He grew up as a very good child, respectful, but all this began when Covid started. I am in pain. I do not sleep whenever he is not at home,” the 50-year-old widow laments.
“He sold his car and I do not know where he put all that money. I want my son to go back to his original state. I am hypertensive and I often wish to die so that I do not see my child suffering from drugs.
“All my relatives have turned their backs on me. He used to help many, but now I am left all alone with my son. They have deserted us. My friend is helping me to get him back on track. Indeed, when days are dark friends are few,” she lamented.
Melvin often gets aggressive when he does not get a fix. This has strained the mother-son relationship, Ndoro says.
“We have become oil and water. He is now aggressive. It shows that he is no longer the same. I used to get angry, but I got counselling to help me understand his situation,” she said.
Endemic drug abuse in the country’s townships has caused social upheaval, with families struggling to cope with the growing number of youths hooked on crystal meth and other drugs.
Crystal meth is sweeping across the country and has been described as a silent epidemic, threatening to destroy a generation, amid calls for urgent action to rescue suffering families.
Following a series of stories on how the drug has destroyed lives amid a few glimmers of hope as some youths are successfully undergoing rehabilitation, The NewsHawks tracked down families struggling to cope with children who are addicted to crystal meth.
Melvin’s mother is among the many parents enduring sleepless nights, worried about their children.
Parents fear that one day they could find their children dead. They have pleaded for urgent help from the authorities.
“This drug problem is now rampant here and parents are now helpless. We do not even have the money to take these children to rehabilitation. I do not have enough for me and my son. These drugs are destroying our children. Most of the children here are into drugs, parents might not know, but it is happening,” Ndoro said.
Her sister, Raina Ndoro, has been having problems with her 27-year-old son Blessing, who is addicted to crystal meth.
Blessing has been stealing money, home appliances and clothes to buy the illicit drug. He has disappeared for one-and-a-half weeks.
Ndoro is worried.
“My son used to work, and everything was fine, but the trouble started when he started using drugs. He is now stealing my money and home appliances to sell. He has stolen most of my clothes. He has sold most of his clothes, trading them in for mutoriro (crystal meth),” the widowed Ndoro said.
“He has disappeared for one-and-a-half week. He took with him my bedding and some home items. I just hear that he is around, but I do not see him. It is very tough to live without knowing the whereabouts of my son. I do not know when it will end. I really need help to get him detoxed and get sober. He used to work for himself and provide for the family.”
Struggling to get help
Most parents in Chitungwiza whose children are drug addicts are struggling to find help.
With numbers growing daily, community volunteers are inundated with hourly calls for help, while the government remains mum on how to deal with the problem.
As the consumption of illicit drugs has risen, the mental health of addicts has taken a severe battering. Six out of 10 patients admitted to mental institutions in Zimbabwe suffer drug-related issues. About 30% are hooked on to drugs, according to narcotic experts.
But the destruction of young people and families has not prompted any decisive action from the government. Zimbabwe does not have public rehabilitation centres, with the available private facilities charging fees that are too prohibitive for poor families.
According to psychiatrists, crystal meth users often suffer from mood swings, hallucinations or “kutsomwa” in street lingo, while prolonged use also causes irritability and anxiety.
‘My friend must return to work’
Visibly intoxicated, Melvin gazes into the cloudless sky as he begins to narrate his addiction to drugs.
With mood swings visibly at play, Melvin starts talking about how has been experiencing spiritual dreams, even suggesting he is a messenger of God.
Melvin has also turned to snuff and cannabis.
It helps him spiritually, he claims.
He immediately composes himself and begins to narrate how he got addicted to crystal meth.
“It started off as fun when I visited a couple of friends sometime in December 2016. That is where I started experimenting with crystal meth. I then got addicted in 2019 when I came back home for holiday and eventually stayed because of the lockdown. I used up all the money I had saved. My money ran out in November last year, this forced me to sell my car,” Melvin says.
“Most of the friends who used to like me when I had money left.”
But Melvin is willing to change and has volunteered to check himself into a rehabilitation facility. He longs to return to his cruise ship job after rehabilitation.
“I really would want to go back to work.”
“My mother does not like this. Who wants their child doing drugs? The drugs are killing the streets every day. It is condemned already. I do not only want to change for myself and family, but for the community too.
“When you are working on the ship, you get to meet people from 71 nationalities and learn a lot of things, languages, skills and other things. This is what helped me sharpen my mind.”
As Melvin narrates his ordeal, his friend David carefully listens.
David (27), a hairdresser, has been off crystal meth for two months and desires to go back to work. David wants his friend to get help.
“I have been off mutoriro for two months now. I try to stay out of the streets, it has been difficult, but I have managed to stay clean. Sometimes I feel the cravings,” David says.
He has tried in vain to show his friend the new path.
“I have tried telling my friend to stay off the streets. He has changed for the worst. I really need him to get help because whenever he goes out, he is selling something, either clothes or shoes. He has become stranger at times with mood swings. Sometimes you often think that he has changed yet it is one of the episodes,” David laments.
“He really wants to go back to work, but right now he cannot go back because, he needs help. He has become too demanding and often suffers depression.”
Prisoners in their own homes
Chitungwiza is a sea of poverty as families scrounge for a living, through vending and other menial jobs.
But beneath the hustle is the pain of mothers, who fear losing their children to drugs.
Pension Chihiya (45) is now afraid to reprimand her son Macdonald (20) who has become violent due to his drug problem.
“Whenever he comes home, I hide all sharp objects because he can be dangerous. He becomes scary when he is intoxicated. Last year, he threatened to beat me up when I confronted him over an issue. His father intervened, but he escaped and spent two days without coming home,” Chihiya tells The NewsHawks.
Macdonald (pictured) has resorted to stealing home goods for sale and, when confronted, the 20-year-old gets angry
Last week, Macdonald broke out of the house, taking with him home appliances and his father’s shoes.
“A few days ago, he took his father’s shoes and sold them. A fight ensued and his father threatened to get him arrested. He broke out of the house that night, stole our home theatre, a suitcase, and other things. He is staying with his friend, who is also an addict. He is currently at loggerheads with his father, and they are not on talking terms,” Chihiya said.
“I have tried to get the police to help but they seem uninterested because they are getting something from these drug peddlers.”
Chihiya pleaded for urgent help for her son and other youths addicted to mutoriro.
“Government should help us stem this drug problem; we are losing our children. We have lost a generation. I have become hypertensive because of stress. I hardly sleep. I have bought new locks because he steals,” she said.
Chihiya’s sister Njaka Munyebvu (48) weeps as she narrates how her son threatened to kill her for destroying his crystal meth smoking apparatus, which comprises of a straw and a florescent bulb.
“My son is now a thief and I have tried engaging the police, but there is no help. It is now hard to live with him, he has become violent. The other day, he threatened to kill me and his young brother after I destroyed his crystal meth apparatus,” Munyebvu said as she breaks into tears.
Munyebvu has given her son an ultimatum to leave the house.
“I have asked him to leave the house because I cannot stay anymore. He does not respect me anymore. I wish his father were there to help me. I do not have anyone to tell,” she said.
Promising lives destroyed
Like Melvin, Gladmore* (26) had a promising career as a barista in Bahrain.
When he came back home last year in February to renew his visa, Covid-19 struck.
His mother Manetsi Masaka (56) explains how her son got hooked on to crystal meth during lockdown and is failing to get help.
“Our neighbour’s son got help from a private facility, but they are expensive. I do not have money; my husband is a pensioner,” she said.
“I have become hypertensive because of this child. He has become a thief and you can never believe that he has done it.”
“Since returning from Bahrain, he has become troublesome, stealing everything at home just to buy crystal meth. He lied to us that he is getting a job, but the job never materialised.”
She pleaded: “We need help. These children are dying because of drugs. The President should take this seriously and catch all these druglords. We do not have peace; I cannot live with my child anymore. We have become prisoners in our own homes.”
But until these mothers get help for their children, they will continue to endure sleepless nights.
