Millions of rand worth of dagga plants went up in smoke on Thursday when police destroyed two rugby field-sized plantations outside Pretoria.
The destruction of the plants - estimated to have a street value of about R5 million by Tshwane metro police department (TMPD) officials - took place a year after metro officers raided the same plantation.
In that raid city officials were left red-faced after the growers, believed to have been tipped off, harvested their fields hours before the TMPD could destroy them.
On ThursdayTMPD officials beat the plantations’ growers and harvesters when they swooped in an early morning raid on the dagga fields planted among mealies in a valley in the Brazzaville informal settlement west of Atteridgeville.
During the raid police stood guard over 36 members of the city’s environmental department who used high-powered machines to cut down the dagga plants, some of which were more than a metre tall.
Piling the trees into 15 large heaps, city fire-brigade officers doused them in diesel and other flammable liquids before setting them alight - all under the eyes of valley residents.
As huge plumes of smoke billowed into the air, residents, and those presumably growing the dagga, could be seen shaking their heads in disgust as they watched the plants burn.
Tshwane community safety MEC Dikeledi Lehobye said the street value of the destroyed dagga was estimated at R5million.
“This destruction will hurt the pockets of the drug dealers in our city who are ruining the lives of thousands of people every day.
“Drug abuse and use in Tshwane is a major problem.
“It has reached dangerous levels, especially in the municipality’s schools.
“It is a problem we are determined to stamp out,” she said.
Lehobye said at this stage the owners of the plantation, which has been growing for years, were still not known.
“We want to send a strong message to those responsible for this field.
“We will catch you and we will make sure that you cannot do this again,” she said.
Lehobye urged people who had information on such plantations to contact the city’s law enforcement agency or the police immediately.
“These plantations are often carefully concealed like this one in the mealie fields.
“That makes them difficult to find, which is why we are relying on our communities to come forward to alert us,” she said.
Anyone with information on drugs or the activities of drug syndicates in Tshwane can phone Crime Stop at 086 001 0111 or the TMPD at 012 358 0070.