Drugs are destroying lives every day and one of the hardest things is to dust yourself off, get sober again and return to society.
One inspirational 29-year-old not only beat his drug demons but is now a successful chef with one of the country’s largest mining companies.
Tshiamo Bindela from Kagiso works for Harmony Gold and even boasts of driving a brand-new Volkswagen Polo these days – something that came as a surprise to his mother who used to cry her nights away because of her son’s substance abuse. Bindela said it makes him happy to bring a smile to his mother’s face.
“I was a problem child until a social worker from the Gauteng Department of Social Development, Sister Nomonde Mphetshwa, came to my rescue. Little did I know that one day I would be preparing food for executives at a big mining company.”
His journey to recovery started in 2020 when Nomonde invited him to her office in Krugersdorp. She then offered Tshiamo counselling and arranged for him to go to a rehabilitation centre. After completing a six-week programme he was taken to the Bambisandla Sam Skills Development centre in Wedela where he started training as a chef.
“I never thought I would recover. I had lost hope in everything but after counselling and putting my foot on Bambisandla Sam’s doorstep, everything changed.”
He calls himself the ‘Fancy Chef” and says that life always gives you a second chance. He explained that seeing his mother’s tears every day bothered him because he too wanted to quit as peer pressure made things very difficult.
After training at Bambisandla, he wanted to further his studies and went to college to study theory as well. He later became an intern at a company in Sandton and said the beautiful people and buildings made him realise that he wanted more out of life.
“I want to thank Sister Nomonde, who was always there for me and continued to follow up on me. I would like to encourage those who are still abusing substances to think about tomorrow and their family. It is never too late to change for the better.”
