Pretoria – Community Safety MEC Sizakele Nkosi-Malobane has vowed to fight the abuse of nyaope in the city's townships by closing down drug dens where the substance is sold.
Nkosi-Malobane told a community meeting in Mabopane on Wednesday that the department would soon launch an anti-drug operation in the area to tackle drug use.
She was addressing nyaope addicts, their families and community members as part of the provincial government’s campaign to raise awareness on the dangers of substance abuse.
The clampdown on drug labs would be undertaken by a unit called the drugs task team that was established in the department in 2015.
“Since it started, the unit has closed down 25 labs."
“There is going to be a operation in this area,” Nkosi-Malobane said.
She called on communities to give tip-offs to the government regarding drug lords and police officers implicated in wrongdoing.
“There is nothing wrong with approaching a police officer who has gone into a house where the owner is known for selling nyaope and yet come out of that with no one arrested,” she said.
She told residents to take down the registration numbers of vehicles driven by such police officers.
Residents said drug lords were destroying vulnerable young lives by selling them nyaope.
The residents complained that the police colluded with criminals in committing crime.
MEC for Education, Panyaza Lesufi, informed residents that the anti-drug awareness campaign was a programme of the provincial government.
He told the nyaope addicts about the provincial programme called Tshepo 500000, which provided opportunities to young people to acquire skills.
The skills development project was run in partnership with at least 2 700 private companies offering training to young people for free.
“Young people are also provided with stipends,” he said.
Lesufi said the provincial government had set aside R289 million to assist those who wanted to further their education.
Aspiring entrepreneurs were also helped in starting up businesses through Tshepo 500000, he said.
“We are not just telling you to desist from doing drugs only to leave you on your own,” he said.
However, Lesufi said nyaope addicts had to quit their drug habit before they could benefit from the programme.
“We want you to go through rehab first,” he said.
During the campaign, more than 250 “bluetoothing” youth in Mabopane and Soshanguve volunteered to go for rehabilitation at the Dr Fabian and Florence Ribeiro Treatment Centre for six weeks.
The bluetooth phenomenon is a practice in which nyaope addicts use syringes to draw blood from one person and inject it into another to share the high.
Recovered drug addict Boikanyo Maruping motivated those who had opted to go for rehabilitation to show commitment.
“It is not easy, but with commitment you can make it,” he said.
MEC for Social Development, Nandi Mayathula-Khoza, said the visit to the area was to ensure collaboration with the addicts in addressing various societal challenges.
“We are pleased that you have come on your own seeking help. The withdrawal symptoms are hard, hang in there and finish the rehab programme."