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Youth show exposes child drunkenness, sexual immorality

Mzuzu’s Welcome to the World Youth Show on Saturday exposed failure of the country’s laws in protecting children from alcohol consumption and sexual activities with adults.

By 2pm, Mzuzu was littered with the youth, some below 18, heading towards either Mzuzu Hotel’s Boma Park or Obrigado Leisure Centre.

Some of the youth at the show
Some of the youth at the show

These were two hotspots of youth entertainment dubbed Welcome to the World where musicians Maskal and Positive Yut headlined the Boma Park and Obrigado shows respectively.

Both shows were meant to relieve school leavers of stress after rigorous weeks of the Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE) examinations.

In Malawi, school leavers are usually 18 or above. But, as it turned out, the shows were also patronised by those below 18 who were not denied entry to the shows, more especially at Obrigado which is also a drinking joint.

Most of the minors were spotted with bottled beer and some of them engaged in smoking. As darkness descended, some men took advantage of the events to pounce on the girls, driving them away from the venues.

One of the organisers, Benjamin Mvula, admitted that as organisers they “had no control over how one would behave in such an event”.

He, however, noted that most of the youth came to the events while drunk or with beer as they would not have managed to buy at the venues, more especially at Boma Park, due to high prices.

Northern Region police spokesperson Maurice Chapola said the law prohibits selling of alcohol to minors.

“We are appealing to organisers of such events to consider being tough on the age factor. Much as we know that some school leavers are above the required age of 18, it should not be a scapegoat to incorporate those that are barred by the law,” he said.

 

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