ETHEKWINI Municipality wants companies that supply syringes and needles to communities to ensure there is a proper, restricted disposal process in place.
This comes after used needles were discovered on the Durban beachfront.
Mayor Zandile Gumede, speaking at the recent Executive Meeting, said discarded needles and syringes posed a serious health and safety risk.
A report, tabled by the Security and Emergency Services Committee, revealed details of a presentation given to the Committee by TBHIV Care who supply syringes to the youth to prevent the spread of HIV by drug addicts who share syringes.
Gumede said it was the first she was hearing about this issue and tasked City officials to urgently address it and said while the matter was being investigated, the distribution of syringes to drug addicts must stop.
“We cannot allow children to take drugs freely. We need more information but we cannot allow this as the City.”
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Chairperson of the Committee, deputy mayor Fawzia Peer, together with councillor Zama Sokhabase will meet with the relevant national and provincial health departments to discuss the memorandum of agreement between the provincial Department of Health and TBHIV Care in an attempt to address the supply of syringes to the public without properly restricted disposal.
The city’s Legal Compliance Unit has also been approached to provide an opinion on the legality of supplying the syringes with needles to communities without ensuring a proper, restricted disposal process by the project owner. Peer said officials were finding a number of discarded, used syringes on the beachfront which had to be cordoned off for safety reasons.
“An investigation was launched and it was discovered that a company operating in Durban has been supplying syringes to the public who requested it, as a way to stop the sharing of syringes. However, there are no control measures in place regarding disposal,” she added.
“They are using the syringes and leaving it on the ground. However, this company has a memorandum of agreement with the national and provincial departments of health to supply syringes. While this is done in first world countries, it is monitored well and disposed of properly which is not being done here,” she said.
She added that it was a serious concern and a societal problem with youngsters being given leeway to do drugs.
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