THE National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC) have roped in the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Service (ZPCS) to assist in the rehabilitation of drug and substance abusers.
Speaking at a Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Justice workshop yesterday, NPRC commissioner Lillian Chigwedere said: “Drug abuse is on the rise and parents and communities are being torn apart by this menace that has surfaced.”
The workshop to discuss the commission’s national healing projects which was held in Harare, was facilitated by the Southern Africa Parliamentary Support Trust.
“As a healing and reconciliation rehabilitation committee, we partnered with different stakeholders including the ZPCS. They are also working on drug rehabilitation and we are surprised that in prisons almost three quarters of the people have committed crimes because they were under the influence of drugs. So the prisons are trying to bring about sanity in terms of bringing education and issues to do with drug rehabilitation,” Chigwedere added.
Zimbabwe has been experiencing high cases of drug abuse since the COVID-19 pandemic, mostly in youths.
Government set up five rehabilitation centres that have benefited 600 substance abusers as authorities seek to arrest the scourge.
NPRC also said it had plans to come up with conflict resolution projects ahead of the 2023 elections.
The commission also lobbied for budgetary support to enable it to carry out its constitutional mandate.
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