BY WATIPASO MZUNGU JNR
“On your own plea of guilty, this court finds you guilty and duly convicts you. Before I pass sentence, do you have anything in mitigation?” says First Grade Magistrate Esther Elia Phiri of Lilongwe registry as she straightens her head up to see the reaction of the convict, Anusa.
“Yes worship! I pray to this court to exercise lenience on me because this is my first time to commit a crime. I would also like to confess here that it was not my intention to commit this crime, but I was cheated by my friend who told me chamba gives academic ingenuity,” pleads an 18-year old Anusa while looking down in depression and regret.
“It was my friend, Zonizo, who handed me a cigarette of cannabis sativa to smoke while we were partying…and I did not know it was such a dangerous drug that could put me in such a difficult problem,” he adds
Anusa raises his head up to look at his parents who are sitting in the public gallery. He sees them shedding a tear or two as they try to shy away from his gaze. Though he is pleading for lenience, Anusa knows quite well that the crime he committed just last night, rape with violence, will still earn him separation from his parents and relatives through death penalty.
He is fully aware that if he is lucky enough he will be spared death, but still earn a considerable custodial sentences of not less than ten years for rape attracts a maximum of 14 years imprisonment with hard labour.
“Considering that you are young and that you have had no criminal record before as you and the state have submitted, this court will take these as your mitigating factors.
“This court is also mindful of your tender age and that you still have a future to make, and considering that maximum sentences are reserved for serious criminals, this court is compelled to exercise its lenience on you. I will also consider the factor that you showed remorse by pleading guilty to the charge and that you did not waste court’s time as your mitigating factors,” says magistrate Phiri.
She poses a bit, takes a bottle of water, drinks and puts the container down again.
“But this court feels obliged to pass a meaningful custodial sentence on the convict because cases of rape and women abuse are becoming rampant. This court does not find it necessary to exercise on the convict because he committed the crime under the influence of alcohol and drugs,” she states. She looks the public gallery to see the people’s reaction.
Phiri sees some faces expressing approval of what she is putting forward to Anusa, especially ladies who are most of the times victims of alcohol and drug abuse in families, schools and any other places of entertainment. The convicts’ parents are still tucked in shame while silently shedding tears of deep sorrow. They have to because they also know this is the beginning of a new life in their family.
They will no longer see him. They will not be able to send him to buy something at the grocery. He will be temporarily unavailable for some years. In short, this is the end of their son’s future, or do they just fear?
The magistrate takes a few minutes scribbling some notes on her file, which no one can access with naked eyes from afar. And the court remains quiet with Anusa still standing in the dock with his hands akimbo.
He is visualizing life in prison; life far from parental care at his age when he desperately needs them to pay his school fees. Anusa has heard stories before of people dying in prison due to lack of food resulting from congestion, a problem our country’s reformatories are best known for.
“I am doomed. My future is doomed. God forget the day I was born,” he curses within himself as he awaits his final destination from the magistrate.
After Phiri finishes writing whatever she was writing, she adjusts her sitting posture, drawing the chair closer to the desk. She clears her throat while facing the convict, parents sitting about five metres away the court clerk’s desk.
“This is your verdict,” she announces. “But before I do that, let me stress here that peer pressure is not an excuse for committing crimes and can never be a mitigating factor. Whether you committed a crime with or without help or influence, the court will pass the same sentence on you. It is up to you to choose who your good friend is.”
“I am, therefore, sentencing you to 12 years imprisonment with hard labour with effect from day of your arrest. This sentence shall serve as a warning to young people who think life is about abusing women after drinking or smoking unnecessarily,” concludes magistrate Phiri attracting the convicts’ loud cry.
“Nditengeni ine chonde mwana wanga msiyeni. Ndikagwire ukaidiwo ndineyo (Set him free. Take me instead, I will serve the sentence on his behalf),” says the mother in her grief-stricken tone. But on what crime can the court pass that sentence on her? Well, she can play Jesus, but courts do not believe in human saviours who can die for other people’s crimes.
Anusa was celebrating his selection to secondary school the previous day when his peers cheated him that beer offers maximum entertainment and celebration. So they went to a certain Mtonjane brewer where they guzzled more than enough that they even forgot their names and where they had come from.
“Takagwireni man kuti mtseguke m’maso. Izi zimachotsa manyazi mwene,” said his friend, Jungayunga, as he handed Anusa a locally-made cigarette of chamba.
The celebrant had no time to ask what the stuff was until the following day when he found himself standing before the magistrate answering questions from law-enforcers for forcing himself on a woman.
It was said that after taking one too much, Anusa decided to bed one or two girls as a way of bidding farewell to village girls as he was now going to secondary school that was far from his home.
One has to spend not less than K1000 to reach the destination. Unfortunately, his new destination was now Maula Prison where he would be for the coming 12 years.
This is but one example of how alcohol and drug abuse can destroy somebody’s future in a short period of time. Abuse of alcohol and drugs have put many young men the world over in serious problems they would never imagine happening to them. Some have found themselves in mental hospitals after taking in too much of pills or smoking chamba wholesale.
Minister of Home Affairs and Internal Security Earnest Malenga recently told journalist in Lilongwe that Malawi was one of the countries faced with serious drug production, abuse and trafficking in the SADC region.
Malenga explained that about 75 to 80 percent of mental cases in Malawi were a result of alcohol and drug abuse, especially among young people.
“The Rapid Situation Assessment report on Drug Abuse and HIV/AIDS in Malawi conducted by the Centre for Social Research of the University of Malawi undertaken in 2004 revealed that there is massive abuse of drugs in the country,” said the minister when he was signing memorandum of understanding on behalf of government of Malawi with FORUT, an international development organization that is trying to fight alcohol and drug abuse in different countries across the globe.
“There are three main drugs of abuse in Malawi , namely alcohol, cannabis sativa (locally known as chamba) and tobacco,” said Malenga. He added that excessive use of drugs and alcohol has led to many families breaking up, pupils getting expelled from schools and drivers causing unnecessary accidents and high infection rate for sexually transmitted diseases and HIV and AIDS.
“The other problem with alcohol is that besides being dangerous to the individual drinker, it is also harmful to those around us such as women, children who bear the brunt of the aggression and violence caused by alcohol and drugs,” explained Malenga.
He blamed the problem on lack of active legislation on the use of alcohol and drugs citing drinking joints which remain open 24 hours because there was no law that guides bar owners on times of opening and closing. Malenga, however, reported that Malawi has now put in place a framework for combating the problem through the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Drug Control chaired by the Ministry of Home Affairs and Internal Security.
He warned that Malawi may risk degenerating into a society of drug addicts if use of alcohol and drugs is not properly managed.
On the MOU he signed on behalf of the government of Malawi, the minister said FORUT was committed to provide the country with technical assistance in the field of alcohol, specifically in areas of research and documentation, competence building, policy development, mobilization and awareness-raising, strengthening of law enforcement institutions and the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Drug Control and Eradication of Cannabis Sativa (chamba).
In his remarks, FORUT Secretary General Morten Lonstad said the programme to combat the abuse of alcohol and drugs in Malawi came after Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation had advised the organization to involve countries in Southern Africa .
“Our aim is to build networks of national and international NGOs where ideas, experiences and knowledge on prevention strategies and policy advocacy can be exposed and further developed,” said Lonstad.
He added: “The programme in Malawi aims at linking the ADD issue to other development issues, as the spreading of HIV and AIDS, gender-based violence and children at risk.”
Lonstad promised that his organization will continuously help Malawi with the required assistance in her fight against alcohol and drug abuse.
“There are vested interests such as the alcohol industry, but if we work together, civil society, faith-based organizations, government ministries, politicians, traditional leaders and all stakeholders, I am sure we should be able to map the way forward to prevent and control alcohol and drug abuse in Malawi so that at the end of the day we should reduce cases of violence and other delinquencies resulting from too much consumption of beer or drugs,” said Home Affairs and Internal Security Principal Secretary Martin Mononga echoing the FORUT Secretary General.
“And we expect to have reduced cases of misbehaviours resulting from alcohol and drug abuse thereby reducing criminal acts also,” said Mononga.
END
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