A Gokwe man in his 60s, and from Mbumbusi area, boasts of transporting mbanje to several towns for sell using a sophisticated method of stuffing it in goats’ intestines.
The old man who identified himself to ZimEye.com as Fanasi Ncube, boasted of having educated his children from trading in the illegal weed, and that he has been forced to improvise his own way of evading police by poverty.
Asked how he managed to avoid police road blocks, the old man said, “I did not really avoid road blocks. I would pass through the police officers, with my weeds inside goat’s intestines and then pack them on arrival to town,” said Ncube.
This reporter asked Ncube to enlighten them on how he evaded arrest, and he said, “I would lock about 10 goats in the small house and starve them for a few days, giving them only water. The idea was to clear their intestines before I start feeding them with my special weed young man. Do you know the special weed I am talking about here? It’s mbanje. I would then see to it that the goats’ stomachs are now empty. I then start feeding them with the weed and in a few minutes load the goats into the car which I will be ferrying the small beasts to town for my serious business.
On arrival to town, I usually favoured Bulawayo since the place is close to Botswana, where mbanje is on demand. I would then gather all the waste produced by goats while travelling. This waste is the best grade of the weed and we would then pack them in small 2 kg papers before transporting them to neighbouring countries for business.
For the goats, we would sell them after 10 days and after making sure that all our mbanje is out of their intestines. We would also slaughter them for celebrating our police breakthrough young man, ” narrated Ncube.
The old man further mocked this journalist for “too much of following the law”, which he said will lead many to die in poverty.
Asked to comment on the old man’s bragging, Gokwe Police told ZimEye.com that they do not comment on hearsay. “We don’t comment on speculative issues, we are a professional organisation.”
However, sources close to the police who cannot be named for reprisals, confirmed that they have at one time intercepted near-similar mbanje trade activities after a tipoff, but cases of Ncube’s trickery appear too high for cops at present.