Cape Town - Mitchells Plain in Cape Town needs a focused anti-drug campaign, ANC deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa said on Saturday.
“We now require at national level a focus, a direct focus in Mitchells Plain,” he told community leaders at the Shekinah Tabernacle in the area.
“We should immediately begin to take action and, even if at provincial level we may not have such success, which we should have, that there should be a campaign....”
Ramaphosa said the focus of such a campaign would be to rid the area of widespread drug addiction and drug lords who preyed on young children.
Members of the community told the African National Congress leader about the struggles they encountered with the interlinked problems of drugs and gangsterism.
Ramaphosa said President Jacob Zuma had previously answered the call of parents with similar problems.
Eldorado Park, Johannesburg, resident Doreleene James, mother of a teenager undergoing drug rehabilitation, appealed to Zuma earlier in the year to rid the area of drug dealers.
Ramaphosa said Zuma had swiftly responded with a clean-up of the area.
One woman leading the fight against drug abuse in Mitchells Plain, who called herself “Mama Madiba”, told Ramaphosa the government had ignored similar problems in her area.
“What Doreleene James is getting in Joburg, we want it 10 times better because Mitchells Plain's problem is bigger. She (James) is getting too much publicity,” she said.
“Please don't get a woman (James) from Johannesburg to come open a women's desk here in Cape Town... It will be a slap in the face for us.”
Ramaphosa said the National Development Plan (NDP) was putting measures in place to reduce criminality.
The plan also addressed “opening the minds” of young children through early childhood development centres and improving social welfare.
“The one thing we are not is a stagnant country. We are a country on the move,” Ramaphosa said.
“As our people face challenges, as we have problems, we have a responsive governing party that will realise a storm is coming... and take proactive actions to do something.”
He said the NDP was not lying dormant.
The ANC had decided to appoint an “economic recovery” task team, to look closely at practical implementation of the NDP going forward.
He said the party was looking at compiling a summarised version of the NDP for easier access. Translation to other languages was also under consideration.
This followed complaints that the plan was too long to read and not easy to understand. Ramaphosa was in the area to get feedback from the community on issues affecting them.
After addressing community leaders, he visited the Beacon Valley home of 62-year-old Christine Finch, whose granddaughter was caught in a gang crossfire in May.
Finch's granddaughter, seven-year-old Tara May, was shot in the back of the shoulder while on school holidays.
Ramaphosa put Tara on his lap in the crowded lounge and listened to what had happened.
“I see when I came in, there was a police station. What is happening? Are they paying attention?” Ramaphosa asked.
He heard that officers apparently arrived at the scene after violent attacks to avoid confrontation.
The local community policing forum's Lynn Phillips said a new gang was moving into the area and there was a battle for territory to sell drugs.
She said tik (methamphetamine), dagga and a new form of heroine were commonly sold and taken.
Phillips said there was an empty building nearby that should be changed into a drug rehabilitation centre with life skills development.
She added that drug lords should be charged with premeditated murder, because they were selling a form of poison known to be harmful. - Sapa