BULAWAYO – Police arrested 131 teenagers in citywide raids across Bulawayo on Saturday evening in an operation targeting so-called Vuzu parties where teenagers abuse drugs and alcohol.
Among those arrested were 15 teenage girls, the youngest just 13, said acting Bulawayo police spokesman Abednico Ncube.
“We discovered alcohol, drugs and used condoms,” Inspector Ncube told the ZBC.
The teenagers are due in court on Monday facing charges of criminal nuisance and public drinking, police said.
Police say teenagers in Bulawayo are known to organise drugs and alcohol-fuelled parties on the first weekend at the close of the school term and the last weekend before a new term.
The get-togethers, which are known as Vuzu parties although the source of that word is unknown, often lead to unprotected sex and anti-social behaviour.
When schools closed in April, police said they had arrested 40 young people aged between 15 and 24 at Vuzu parties. A further 49 were detained on the final day of the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair last month.
In Saturday’s raids, police said they impounded a commuter omnibus at a roadblock near Mahatshula suburb and arrested its 28-year-old driver, Nkosiphile Ndlovu. He had 25 teenagers in the vehicle, and police recovered several types of alcohol, condoms, sex enhancing pills and cannabis.
