{"id":2096,"date":"2026-05-13T07:21:31","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T07:21:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thewasupost.co.zw\/?p=2096"},"modified":"2026-05-13T07:24:28","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T07:24:28","slug":"arrests-spike-to-265-as-minister-rallies-province","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewasupost.co.zw\/index.php\/2026\/05\/13\/arrests-spike-to-265-as-minister-rallies-province\/","title":{"rendered":"Minister Mugadza Reveals 265 Drug Arrests in a Month as Manicaland Escalates War on Substance Abuse"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Fanuel Chinowaita<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Manicaland\u2019s Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Advocate Misheck Mugadz<\/em><\/strong>a<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

MUTARE, 13 May 2026<\/strong>\u2013 Manicaland\u2019s Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Advocate Misheck Mugadza, used a press conference yesterday afternoon to lay bare the scale of the province\u2019s drug crisis and rally every sector of society to the fight, revealing that 265 people were arrested in the past month alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Addressing journalists at his office, Mugadza insisted the response must match the gravity of the threat. \u201cWe must fight this with the zeal and aggressiveness it deserves,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The minister stressed that government cannot win the battle by itself. \u201cThe fight against drug and substance abuse is everyone\u2019s responsibility. Government alone cannot overcome this challenge without the active participation of families, communities, the private sector, faith-based organisations and young people themselves,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mugadza issued a direct appeal to parents and guardians, urging them to remain vigilant and engaged in their children\u2019s lives, and called on community leaders to foster environments that reject drugs and support recovery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The stark law-enforcement figures he then laid out underscored why he was speaking in such urgent terms. In the just-ended monthly reporting period, police made 265 drug-related arrests\u2014an increase from the 249 recorded during the same stretch last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of those detained, 232 were male and 33 female; seven individuals were referred to court (four males and three females) while eleven were convicted. Eight alleged drug suppliers were also taken into custody, signalling an intensifying push to disrupt trafficking networks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the rehabilitation front, Mugadza commended the Mutare City Council for availing the Sakubva Psychiatric Unit for drug recovery services and for committing US$300,000 to start works. He also reminded the audience that last year\u2019s anti-drug fundraising campaign in the province saw individuals and corporates pledge a combined US$620,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe appreciate those who have honoured their pledges while urging those who are yet to make their payments to kindly do so,\u201d he said, linking the money to expanded rehabilitation access, restorative care and mental-health training for more frontline workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His remarks come amid deepening anxiety over rising drug and substance abuse among young people across Manicaland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Fanuel Chinowaita MUTARE, 13 May 2026\u2013 Manicaland\u2019s Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Advocate Misheck Mugadza, used a press conference yesterday afternoon to lay bare the scale of the province\u2019s drug crisis and rally every sector of society to the fight, revealing that 265 people were arrested in the past month alone….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewasupost.co.zw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewasupost.co.zw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewasupost.co.zw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewasupost.co.zw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewasupost.co.zw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2096"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thewasupost.co.zw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2096\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2099,"href":"https:\/\/thewasupost.co.zw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2096\/revisions\/2099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewasupost.co.zw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewasupost.co.zw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewasupost.co.zw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}