The Chronicle

BULAWAYO, Friday, February 23, 1968 — “Gwelo parents don’t seem to take the slightest interest in what their children do.

Those of us who are trying to do something for the young people have to fight against liquor all the time, for Gwelo is a bad town for liquor. We can’t do it unless the parents help and care what happens.”

These are just a few of the points made in an interview this afternoon with Gwelo’s Youth Mayoress, Miss France Fourie who, in a letter to a Gwelo newspaper which was also signed by the Youth Mayor, David Abrahams, asked: “Do parents really know where their children are on Saturday nights?

“Are they at the Gwelo Youth Club, where they should be, or are they at other parties?”

These two officials — she is a policewoman and he is in the RRAF — say they are disappointed at the young people’s response to the youth club — a response which has brought its temporary closure.

Last Saturday night a dance was organised in Gwelo (no liquor, only minerals) and six young people attended. The remainder went to another dance where they say liquor was on sale.

The letter pleads: “We must turn to parents and ask them please to help us to help the youth of Gwelo.”

Miss Fourie, in her second term as Youth Mayoress, said: “The lads go where the drink is and the girls go where the boys are — so they all end up with drink. Many of these youngsters tell their parents they are going to the Youth Club when in fact they are going somewhere else.”

The youth of Gwelo seemed to have got out of the habit — if ever they had it — of doing something for themselves, or of helping others who are trying to do something.

“They moan that there is nothing to do in Gwelo but then, when we provide something to do, they don’t support us,” she said.