By Lavern de Vries
Ellen Pakkies, who killed her tik-addict son three years ago, wept and had to leave the room to compose herself while watching a documentary about her crime.
Pakkies strangled her son, Abie, in 2007 after enduring his drug-induced thieving and abuse for four years.
Now, the story of the Lavender Hill mother is set to be broadcast to an international audience when it is aired on satellite television.
The Ellen Pakkies Story recounts her futile struggle to help Abie. After his death, Pakkies was charged with his murder.
In an unprecedented ruling, she was sentenced to three years in prison, suspended for three years, and 280 hours of community service.
Now, two months after her community service was completed, Pakkies, whose tragic story resonated with many mothers across the Cape Flats, is sharing her story with the world.
"I'm very happy with the documentary. It captures what people should see - how drugs destroy the lives of young people," she said during the preview screening.
The 45-minute documentary features interviews with several people who supported her, including her advocate, Adrien Samuels.
Directed and produced by Mike Duff for the Crime Investigation Network, the film details the severity and impact of tik addiction, and reports that there are at least 300 000 tik addicts in Cape Town alone.
Of those, 30 000 suffer from drug-induced psychosis.
Pakkies, who left the screening midway in a flood of tears, said that despite the difficulty of viewing the events that had shaped her life, she welcomed the producers' efforts to tell her story.
Co-producer Alexis Burg said Duff had felt compelled to tell Pakkies' story in a dignified manner, and at length, after a 10-minute insert he had produced for Carte Blanche.
He had then e-mailed the Crime Investigation Network, which commissioned him to do the feature.
Describing it as a "labour of love", Burg said she hoped the documentary would draw interest from the international community, which would hopefully help the fight against the scourge of drugs by donating money for rehabilitation programmes.
Pakkies, who was paid a R7 000 "donation", said she had used the money to spoil herself and to replace some of the things her son had stolen.
She is still involved in community work and plans to publish a book telling her story.
But for now she is raising funds for a community centre to cater for the recreational needs of children who have not fallen prey to drugs.
The Ellen Pakkies Story will be aired on the Crime Investigation Network on DStv next Wednesday at 8.30pm.