The top stories in newspapers, on radio stations and on different TV channels are that of young people who are abusing their parents because they demand money from them to buy drugs.
A few months ago, I interviewed two brothers from Kwatsaduza who were nyaope addicts and after realising that they had a problem, went out to seek for help.
The two brothers aged between 22 and 35 years told me their sad story about how they abused their mother who depend on her pension grant for a living.
With sadness and regret written on the older brother’s face, he told me that before he used nyaope, he had a good, normal life.
He had a good job that paid him enough money to feed his family of three.
He started to feel under pressure one morning when he was preparing to go to work his younger brother forced their mother to get him nyaope on credit.
The younger brother explained to his mother that she will have to ensure that she pays the drug lord at the end of the month.
He said seeing her treated like that by her own child, broke his heart.
After witnessing the abuse that her mother is going through, he then decided to take the responsibility to feed his brother’s addict.
‘To rescue my mother, I committed to buy him the drug any time he craves for it,” said the older brother.
The family’s financial situation changed as more money was spent on buying nyaope than buying groceries.
The older brother saw no other way out but to quit his job after feeling that he was not doing enough for his family following his failure to provide for them the way that he used to.
Seeing no other way to take away the stress that he was under, after losing his title of being a bread winner at home, he also started taking drugs.
Both him and his younger brother started to sell their mother’s furniture, including her bed.
After all the furniture was gone, they sold curtains and all the electric appliances that their mother bought.
When they still had things to sell from the house, their mother had peace to sleep without being awakened around 3am to get nyaope on credit.
A few months down the line, the furniture was no more so that meant that the boys struggled to get money to buy the nyaope drug.
The plan that they came up with was to again abuse their mother, not one boy this time around, but both of them.
They continued to abuse their mother without knowing that they were both doing it as each one would drag her to the drug lord secretively.
Their mother started losing weight, was always depressed, until the day they bumped into each other in her bedroom, both trying to force her to buy the drug for them.
Surprisingly, bumping into each other in their mother’s bedroom, changed their minds and hearts. They realised that what they were doing to her was abuse.
That was the day that the boys admitted to having a problem and asked for help.
The newly established Tsakane Youth Development Programme (TYDP) opened the doors for the two brothers.
It helped them change their lives.
Their admission at a rehabilitation centre was organised by the members of the organisation.
The brothers spent six weeks at the rehab and came back clean.
Allegedly under the influence of drugs a 29-year-old man, also from Kwatsaduza, burnt down his home because he demanded money from his mother who is a pensioner to buy sneakers that cost more than R1 000.
After hearing the brothers’ story and how they got help, made me realise that organisations such as TYDP are doing a good job and they are not doing it so that they can smile all the way to the bank at month-end, but they are doing it to save and build the future of the young stars who lost hope and have turned to drugs.
