The Sunday Mail
Ghetto whispers with Rosenthal Mutakati
WHILE craving for a salty chew one Saturday afternoon, my friends and I decided to buy a few pieces of beef, pork and a sausage to titillate our taste buds while downing ice-cold beers outside a dingy bar in Waterfalls, Harare.
Just as the meat was caramelising into a golden colour and letting out its juices, thanks to a well-lit braai stand, an acquaintance of mine, with his girlfriend in tow, passed by.
We exchanged greetings, shared jokes and exchanged notes on a number of subjects as I attended to the meat.
The lovers, however, were determined to tag along and happily gorged our meat oblivious of the fact that we had pooled resources for the braai pack.
Such people are a common nuisance at bars and other entertainment joints.
They are willing to join in on the fun at the expense of others. They often shamelessly brag about their uncanny ability to have fun without paying a dime for it.
“I had a lot of fun last night. I drank like a whale and ate like a hungry pig on someone’s account. Tinodya zvemarema isu. I make it a point that I go back home with all my money, if not with extra cash, each time I visit the bar. We are men of the people,” you hear such characters saying in the ghetto without considering the pain and strain they cause to the people they “force” to host them.
Called “parasites”, “weeds,” “choppers,” “ticks,” “fast-boys”, people who sponge on others at bars cut across all ages, complexions, body shapes and sizes.
A parasite is an organism that lives in or on another and takes its nourishment from another organism or “host.”
Parasites come in different forms such as helminths (worms), arthropods (lice, ticks, mosquitoes, etcetera) and protozoa.
Loosely speaking, weeds are just undesirable plants in the wrong place.
Many plants that people widely regard as weeds are also intentionally grown in gardens and other cultivated settings, in which case they are sometimes called beneficial weeds.
The term weed is also applied to any plant that grows or reproduces aggressively, or is invasive outside its native habitat.
This aptly describes the character of people who rely on feeding off other’s sweat.
Regardless that one is in the company of dignified people like in-laws, workmates and religious leaders, such people will always strike and at times crack jokes that are off-colour.
These people seemingly have a training centre from which they are churned out in droves. They use all manner of persuasion to get a pint of beer, meat or other eats from patrons.
Some even use force or the popular line: “Ndiri wechidhaka mwana wamudhara, ungandikangagwe nhasi isu takakura tese?”
Is it a crime growing up together?
Is it a right and is it right that someone always comes to you because they want a beer?
These characters, who ask for everything from a cigarette to a beer, food and even bus fare, use blackmail as a weapon to achieve their ends. They will tell you how evil it is not to share even when it is clear they almost always have nothing to share.
People who want freebies cause problems everywhere they are invited because they see no harm in taking a friend along even if the occasion is strictly by invitation.
“Makuvhaira manje because you have made it,” they will tell you straight in the eye before volunteering all the unverified information they have about you to whoever cares to listen.
It can be worse if you yield to their demands because they will ungratefully claim: “Murume haarohwe netsvimbo imwe. No warrior can be killed with one strike.”
Gentle reader, I am not advocating being stingy, but the way some people are determined to make others meet the cost of their happiness is so disturbing.
Inotambika mughetto.
