SIZALENDABA Secondary School Development Committee representative Zvenyika Moyo has said Bulawayo City Council (BCC) halted them from clearing a bushy area which has become a hotspot, where school girls are violated by school leavers amid concerns that there is an increase in the number of cases of child pregnancies at New Mazwi area in Bulawayo.
New Mazwi village is a peri-urban settlement adjacent to Pumula Old suburb in Bulawayo.
Moyo told Southern Eye that they have tried by all means necessary to engage BCC to make a plan about the bushy area where school girls get violated.
“We tried to engage BCC on the issue because the area is so bushy that it has become very dangerous as school leavers hang around there so that they can abuse young school girls,” he said.
“We asked them that they let the school and the community to clear the bushy area, but they stopped us from doing that as they were claiming that they first needed to engage stakeholders like the Environmental Management Agency.”
Moyo said since then, they have not heard from the local authority, hence this has become a worrying situation because many girls are getting abused.
He said the area has become a threat to such an extent that even female teachers sometimes ask to be escorted while passing through the bushy area.
“The area is very dangerous even for our school staff. The school is in a very isolated area and it’s worrying that an area close to the school has become a hotspot for gender-based violence,” he said.
New Mazwi residents vice-chairperson Judith Ndlovu said currently, cases of abuse have gone down since they engaged Matabeleland Institute for Human Rights (MIHR).
“These days, it is very quiet. We haven’t heard of any cases lately. There has been a decrease in the abuse of school girls. Another thing I think it’s because we took the matter to the police, so they patrol the area from time to time,” Ndlovu said.
She said after the engagement of MIHR, they formed a neighbourhood watch committee.
MIHR director Khumbulani Maphosa blamed bad parenting for the rise in the number of teen pregnancies in New Mazwi.
“It’s not the school’s problem that the area around is bushy, but the problem is with the parents who are failing to discipline their children. The parents do not even go for school meetings mainly because they are not bothered at all,” Maphosa said.
“The fact that they do not show interest in their children’s school work raises alarms. This is because the parents believe in being spoon-fed. School affairs and expenses are being catered for by a non-profit organisation.”
In 2021, New Mazwi parents cried foul over school leavers who prey on young school girls as they go to school, turning the nearby bushy areas into bedrooms, thereby increasing the number of child pregnancies.
Ndlovu said they had had enough of boys that prey on the young girls.
She pointed out school leavers as the troublesome lot.
She said they had engaged government representative workers to look into the situation, but they had found no joy.
Ndlovu said that the school needs guards who can monitor the surroundings to cleanse the school of the bad name tag.
Ward 17 councillor Sikhululekile Moyo said the community ended up clearing the area, but council is also working on developing the area.
“The residents came together cleared up the land. But clearing the area does not help, so as council, we decided to keep that place busy, so we will construct vocational training centres. This will at least curb the high rates of teenage pregnancies and school leavers will spend most of their time there,” Moyo said.