CLAIM: In Mbare at least 10 young people die daily of drug related illnesses
SOURCE: The News Hawks
VERDICT: False
In early February, online publication,The News Hawks shared an article on their Whatsapp group with a claim that ‘in mbare, at least 10 young people die daily of drug related illnesses’.
The post was a re-share of an article the media house originally published on 7 November 2022.
Part of the article reads:
“In Mbare, one of the country’s oldest townships, at least 10 young people die daily of drug-related illnesses, with crystal meth claiming many youths.”
While the article quotes a research study that was done, the statistics on the 10 young people dying is not attributed to that research.
A look into the research shows that it is not the source of this statistic as the study is not looking at the number of drug related deaths, but barriers to seeking treatment.
10 a day is 3 650 deaths a year
The number of 10 deaths a day due to drug related illnesses would equate to 3 650 drug deaths a year in Mbare alone.
How does this number equate to the country’s mortality rate? In the 2022 census, crude deaths were counted at 121 078 and crude death rate was 8.
This refers to all deaths due to any cause. The number, therefore, includes, maternal mortality, neo-natal mortality, road traffic fatalities, COVID-19, non communicable diseases, suicides – and everything else.
Non-communicable diseases include cancers, diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular diseases, digestive diseases, skin diseases, musculoskeletal diseases, and congenital anomalies.
Putting the number in perspective
As of the last census in 2022, Mbare has a population of 71 402. If 10 people are dying a day, and 3 650 in a year alone, this would mean a crude death rate in Mbare of 51 , from drug related causes only, against a national rate of 8 from all causes and Harare’s crude death rate of 5.8.
COVID-19 killed 5 659 people from 24 March 2020 to 13 February 2023. This would roughly translate to 5 people a day nationwide. The highest daily death toll in the country was on 14 January 2021 at 47 nationwide.
Drug deaths in Zimbabwe
According to a report in 2020 by worldlifeexpectancy, Zimbabwe was ranked 38th in terms of drug related deaths where 213 people died of drug related matters in that year.
This is way lower than NewsHawks’ 3 650 in Mbare alone.
Global Statictics
The world’s highest drug related deaths occur in the United States of America, followed by Scotland.
Mbare’s figures place it at 240 per million. This would mean that, according to the NewsHawks statistics, if Mbare were a country it would have the world’s third biggest drug deaths burden.
Expert Opinion
FactCheckZW reached out to Wilson Box, who is Chief Executive Officer of the Zimbabwe Civil Liberties and Drug Network. He said even though there are a lot of cases of drug abuse among youths, he cannot confirm the figures of 10 youths dying daily of drug related illnesses.
“There is a lot of drug use happening among our youths but I’m yet to see the figures that 10 youths die a day,” he said.
Roland Chiringa is ZimStat’s spokesperson. He says that the police are the best source for mortality rates related to drug abuse.
“Up to date mortality statistics, particularly related to suicides and drug abuse, are best collected from ZRP. That administrative data is not up to date as most families do not disclose the true cause of death if it is related to drug abuse or suicides. What we have is the mortality statistics as at 2022 Census date,” he said.
FactCheckZW looked at the police statistics and the last publicly available quarterly digest of statistics shows that in 2019, 544 people were arrested for possession of dangerous drugs.
There are no statistics available for drug related deaths.
CONCLUSION: The claim that at least 10 youths are dying daily in Mbare due to drug related illnesses has been rated as false. There are no records providing that information nor any evidence. The figure is so high that it would be near impossible to ignore.
