The Sunday Mail
Tendai Chara and Emmanuel Kafe
Residents have raised red flags over cases of public drinking, which have reached unprecedented levels in the capital.
Cheeky drinkers are turning some shop- ping centres into open drinking holes, creating chaos and sleepless nights.
The residents are being exposed to loud music blaring from parked cars.
These activities are going on yet the law prohibits them.
What is more worrying is that some of the shopping centres are near schools, a sit- uation that exposes schoolchildren to rowdy behaviour. They are not spared from the noise, resulting in lack of concentration on their studies.
Open spaces are also being turned into illegal canteens, where food is cooked and sold to the public.
Investigations by The Sunday Mail Society revealed that the public drinking activities are taking place throughout the week, with peak periods being weekends.
A 45-year-old man from Msasa was recently involved in a car accident on Samora Machel Avenue in Harare. The accident happened at a traffic light-controlled intersection close to a popular liquor centre in Eastlea.
The man, who was driving a Nissan X-Trail, had the right of way, but a heavily intoxicated guzzler, who had spent a greater part of that Thursday afternoon downing one too many, encroached onto his lane, leading to a col- lision.
According to residents in the area, “freaky accidents” are happening every now and then. Reports say the liquor centre is frequented by many people who engage in public drink- ing as early as 11am, and when they leave the place, the imbibers rarely observe road reg-
ulations.
“Vanenge vakanwa mdhara (They will be heavily intoxicated). As a result, they struggle to safely negotiate their way into the busy road (Samora Machel Avenue),” said one vendor who operates in the area. He only identified himself as Solo.
In interviews, residents in Sunridge and Mabelreign said they were worried about the increased cases of environment and noise pol- lution, including immoral behaviour exhibited by revellers in the open spaces where alcohol is consumed in broad daylight.
According to the residents, revellers who consume beer at Homeground, Fat Cow and Wadi, all situated in Ward
16 (Mabelreign), have made their lives a living hell.
The beer joints close late into the night, with patrons parking their cars in people’s yards and close to the gates.
In most cases, property owners have to negotiate with the unruly imbibers to get out of their homes.
The public drinkers are also being accused of reliev- ing themselves in the open, and harassing women and girls who frequent the shop- ping centres during the day. They also leave empty contain- ers scattered all over the place.
Juliana Marikidze, who resides in Sunridge, is not amused.
“At Homeground, the bars close very late during weekends. Last time, I noticed that some children were blowing
used condoms they had picked up from the open space. We have tried to engage police but to no avail,” Marikidze said.
She said the revellers are exposing children to life-threatening diseases such as sexually transmitted infections.
Prostitution is now rife in the area as the ladies of the night target the hedonists.
Plea
“Something must be done urgently. Some of the drunkards harass women and children. This is a residential area and we must not be exposed to such kinds of unruly behaviour,” added Marikidze.
Justine Mutimba, who resides in Mabelreign, painted an equally bad picture about the goings-on at Mabelreign Shopping Centre.
“The shopping centre is now littered with illegal taverns, where loud music is played. This whole place now smells of urine as the revellers relieve themselves everywhere. This cannot be allowed to continue,” Mutimba said.
Drug peddlers have allegedly set base at the shopping centre and oper- ate in broad daylight.
The police have noted the trend with concern.
“As police, we are aware of the fact that some people are breaking the laws by drinking outside licensed premises.
“This usually happens during weekends and public holidays. Habitual offenders will be brought before the courts,” said Harare Province police spokesperson Inspector Luck- more Chakanza.
According to Insp Chakanza, two Glen View men recently appeared before the courts for contravening the Liquor Act.
He noted that public drinking was com- mon at most of the major shopping centres such as Tichagarika in Glen View, Current in Budiriro and Machipisa in Highfield.
Ward 16 councillor Denford Ngadziore said the city council was aware of the lawlessness in the area.
Ward 16 encompasses Mabelreign, Sun- ridge, Sherwood, Cotswold, Bloomingdale and Ashdown Park, among other areas.
“The council by-laws are very clear. We are in the process of implementing them (by-laws). This will include warning those who are breaking the laws. In some cases, we are going to cancel some permits for the businesses that are breaking the laws,” warned Cllr Ngadziore.
According to the councillor, a meeting between the council and bar owners in the ward has been scheduled for this week.
“I believe in engagement. After the meet- ing, those who are going to break the laws will have their bars closed.”
According to city by-laws, it is an offence to drink and make noise in public.
A section of the by-laws states that no person shall “Operate, or cause, or permit to be operated, any wireless, loudspeaker, gramophone, record player, amplifier, musi- cal instrument or similar device in the neigh- bourhood in or adjacent to any public street or public place without the prior written consent of the council”.
In the Avenues area, the Montagu Shop- ping Centre has also been turned into a public drinking place. Cars block the roads leading to the city centre, making them impassable, especially from Friday until Sunday.
It is the same case at Newlands Shopping Centre, where some revellers park their cars right in the middle of the road as they gulp their favourite beers. A major road that passes through the centre is always clogged, especially from 2pm going into the night.
Some locals have since resolved to use longer routes when going home after work or conducting their business in town.
The situation is terrible at most centres on Fridays and Saturdays.
In Eastlea, revellers usually congregate at an open drinking place popularly known as Pennywise.
They consume their alcohol that will be stashed in vehicle trunks.
When public toilets are closed, the drinkers resort to relieving themselves in alleys.
Others urinate in empty bottles or con- tainers, which they will later throw around.
The water drainage system at Pennywise was now clogged with empty beer bottles.
Public fighting is also common at the drink- ing places, with the drunkards often targeting innocent women whom they subject to volleys of obscenities.
In 2015, a hapless woman was stripped naked by overzealous touts at the Fourth Street bus terminus for wearing a mini-skirt. The touts were reportedly drinking in pub- lic when they committed the offence, which
earned them an eight-month jail term.
Ivan Zhakata, the president of the Drinkers Association of Zimbabwe (daZ), which rep- resents the interests of the drinking public, urged people to drink responsibly.
“We have noted with great concern an increase in public drinking. People seem to have forgotten that public drinking is an offence, and one can be arrested if found con- suming alcohol in public. daZ urges imbibers to drink at designated places. We continue to encourage our members to drink responsibly in line with our mantra of creating a responsi- ble drinking generation,” Zhakata said.
