Worried by the proliferation of wild teenage parties popularly known as vuzum parties, a coalition of churches and civic organizations says it is mobilizing residents and politicians in Bulawayo to march against the practice.
In Harare, the parties are known as skin-outs in which the revelers are mostly teenage school kids who drink alcohol take drugs and engage in sex.
Several dozen teenagers have been arrested in Harare and Bulawayo after being busted in these parties, some of them in the nude.
The youths are reportedly organizing the parties through social networks like Whatsapp, Facebook and Viber.
It is unknown where the teenagers, most of them who are still at school, get the money to host the parties and buy the expensive goodies. But some people believe some of the binge drinkers have parents in the diaspora who send them money for their upkeep but they divert it to these orgies.
The issue of the parties has also attracted the attention of the Bulawayo City Council whose mayor, Martin Moyo, has raised concern over them.
Moyo was quoted by some media organizations as saying, “The Housing and Community Services and Social Welfare will investigate this development as a matter of urgency, as this issues cannot be ignored because it has a bearing on society as a whole.”
The organizers of the protest march say they want to take their campaign against the parties to other cities.
Reverend Useni Sibanda, one of the organizers of the protest, told Studio 7 police have given them the go ahead and they expect a big turn out because people are worried about the parties.
