Tendai Ruben Mbofana
The landscape of our nation is currently haunted by a specter that is as visible as it is terrifying.
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We see it in the vacant stares of young men huddled in street corners and the trembling hands of girls who should be holding textbooks instead of dangerous substances.
Drug and substance abuse is a grave pandemic that threatens to dismantle the very fabric of our society.
It is a scourge that has wrecked havoc across the country, leaving a trail of broken families and wasted potential.
There is no denying that this crisis requires an urgent, uncompromising response.
It is right, and even highly recommended, for the youth to invest their time, energy, and resources in campaigning against this menace.
However, there is a dangerous trap being set in the midst of this smoke and mirrors.
As you fight the fire of addiction, you must be careful not to be blinded by the very regime that is fanning the flames of a much larger disaster.
The government is currently riding the wave of anti-drug sentiment with suspicious enthusiasm.
While they posture as the grand protectors of the younger generation, they are using this “war on drugs” as a convenient distraction.
It is a classic sleight of hand.
While your eyes are fixed on the needle and the sachet, the ruling elite is systematically stealing your future right from under your feet.
We are witnessing an equally devastating crisis that is unfolding in the corridors of power—a crisis of criminality and kleptocracy that ensures the youth find themselves stuck in a country without hope.
The most stinging indictment of this regime is the systematic dismantling of the education sector.
We are told that education is the key to success, yet the gates to that success have been rusted shut for the majority of our children.
Imagine a pupil deep in Tsholotsho attempting to learn the complexities of chemistry through the “mouth of the teacher.”
These students are expected to master science experiments without ever seeing a Bunsen burner, touching a test tube, or measuring liquid in a beaker.
Their “labs” are often dilapidated rooms with no running water or electricity, where chairs and desks are luxury items and textbooks are relics from a forgotten era.
This under-investment is not a mistake but a choice.
It is the reason why national Ordinary Level pass rates have stubbornly refused to climb above 36 percent since independence.
When we look at our neighbors, the comparison is nothing short of embarrassing.
In 2025, South Africa recorded a Matric pass rate of 87 percent, Botswana soared to 98 percent, and Zambia maintained a solid 70 percent.
Zimbabwe, once the jewel of African education, is now an outlier of failure.
This is a deliberate disempowerment of an entire generation.
While the children of the ruling elite are whisked away to expensive private schools or prestigious universities abroad, the local youth are left with a hollowed-out system that produces zero percent pass rates in rural outposts.
Teachers, the very backbone of this system, are themselves underpaid, overworked, and demoralized, forced to survive on wages that do not even cover their basic needs.
Even for those who manage to navigate the obstacle course of our failing schools, the reward is a vacuum.
The economy offers the youth nothing but the indignity of street vending, the hazardous toil of “chikorokoza,” or the uncertainty of so-called “backyard projects.”
Formal employment is a myth for over 90 percent of the population.
We have become a nation of graduates who have been forced to trade their degrees for weighing scales on the pavement.
Consider the heartbreaking irony of our university graduates.
We know far too many brilliant minds who, after years of grueling study, find that their only path to a dignified life is to train as nurse aids so they can flee to the United Kingdom to work in care homes.
This “brain drain” is a direct result of a country richly endowed with gold, diamonds, and lithium, yet whose wealth is daily pillaged by a few.
These resources are siphoned off with the complicity of scandalous mining companies that reinvest nothing into the local infrastructure.
Instead of a vibrant industrial sector, we have chaotic and unpredictable economic policies that frighten away any legitimate investor who might actually create a job.
The ruling elite thrives on this chaos, enriching themselves while the youth are left to scramble for crumbs in an informal economy that offers no security and no growth.
Our youth are being lulled into a state of political slumber, encouraged to focus solely on the “drug problem” as if it were an isolated act of God.
But we must ask—where is the fire that burned in the 1970s?
During the liberation struggle, the youth were economically and politically conscious.
They understood that their future was being restricted by an oppressive colonial regime.
We saw children as young as 14 years crossing dangerous borders to train as freedom fighters because they refused to accept a life of second-class citizenship.
They had the clarity to see that their individual struggles were tied to a corrupt system that had to be confronted.
Is the marginalization and impoverishment today not arguably worse than it was then?
Under the guise of an “independent Zimbabwe,” the youth are being subjected to a different kind of coloniality—one where the oppressors share their own history and surnames.
The 1970s generation understood that their greatest enemy was the system that denied them their humanity.
Today’s youth must realize that their greatest enemy is not just the “guka” in the bottle, but the people who ensure that the bottle is the only thing a young person can afford to find.
Perhaps the most haunting question the youth must ask is this—where are all these drugs and substances even coming from?
Who is bringing them into the country?
We live in a state where political dissent is monitored with eagle-eyed precision and activists are snatched from the streets with ease.
Yet, somehow, truckloads of illicit substances flow across our borders with the fluidity of water.
How is it that the “kingpins” who bring these poisons into our neighborhoods are seldom caught?
It is time to look suspiciously at the very ruling elite that tells you to focus your attention on the local “dealer” while they overlook the “supplier” who likely dines at their tables.
This influx of drugs is not an accident.
It is a carefully planned and sinister scheme to keep the youth distracted, sedated, and docile.
A drugged youth does not demand accountability.
A drugged youth does not march for better schools.
A drugged youth does not question why the national wealth is being stashed in offshore accounts.
The ruling elite may pretend to be fighting drug abuse, but deep down they know that this charade will never affect their plans.
As long as the youth are fighting the “scourge,” they aren’t fighting the “system.”
We, as the adults who have watched this decay, have a duty to conscientize the next generation.
You must understand that there is an even more frightening and urgent danger unfolding right under your feet.
It is a danger that requires your immediate and undivided attention.
Yes, stay away from drugs.
Yes, campaign against substance abuse.
But do not let that fight be the beginning and the end of your activism.
Your most dangerous enemy is not the one selling you a high.
It is the one who has stolen the ground you stand on and the air you breathe.
It is the one who has turned your schools into empty shells and your factories into ruins.
The fight against drugs is a fight for your health, but the fight against kleptocracy is a fight for your very existence.
Do not allow a government-sponsored distraction to rob you of the consciousness needed to demand your birthright.
The 1970s generation fought for a flag—now you must fight for the country that is supposed to exist under it.
Wake up and see the thieves in the night who are looting your tomorrow while they tell you to watch your neighbor today.
- Tendai Ruben Mbofana is a social justice advocate and writer. To directly receive his articles please join his WhatsApp Channel on: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaqprWCIyPtRnKpkHe08
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