Angels in uniform help Joburg’s addicts during lockdown

Being homeless and living with HIV can’t be easy for a drug addict on lockdown, but this is a situation many of the country’s most vulnerable sadly find themselves in at present.

This is why four passionate, veteran nurses took it upon themselves to tend to homeless addicts (including alcoholics) and ensure they receive daily assistance that could change their lives. The four nurses assist close to 1,500 stranded outcasts in the Johannesburg CBD.

These tireless volunteers, nurses over 50 years old, with support from early-rising doctors, are committed to providing these vulnerable addicts with blankets, soap, toilet paper and food, with the assistance from the department of social development, the City of Johannesburg and South African National Council on Alcoholism.

They are trailblazing the cure for substance addiction “tough-love” style, leaving no stone unturned in their efforts to curb the spread of the coronavirus and simultaneously healing recovering addicts struggling to escape the scourge of drugs.

But when the queue for detox meds is filled with over 40 addicts with withdrawal symptoms, ready to shaya’mpama for their daily dosages, it becomes clear that even silver linings have their own share of dark clouds.

Some extreme measures had to be taken, as in the case of an entire building having to be filled with over ten floors of mattresses set 1 meter apart, and food and detox queues, held in semi-dark parking garages. This sometimes leads to chaotic situations but where surprisingly, the human element prompts addicts themselves to take charge and keep order in what the less optimistic would imagine to be hell for the nurses.

A sleeping area for homeless people and addiction sufferers is seen, 14 April 2020, at the converted Hofland Park Recreation Centre in Bezuidenhout Valley during the coronavirus pandemic. Picture: Michel Bega

The makeshift facility boasts a 0% fatality rate so far, not counting the rumours among the residents themselves of desperate addicts jumping from the second floor or addicts breaking glass in confinement and stabbing their way out to get a fix.

Nurse Charmaine Titus, however, said she was concerned about the long-term plans for addicts after lockdown was over. She feels like there is no protocol for continued treatment and that this is just a band-aid on a big wound. She is currently also trying to secure an empty hostel where kids can try and stay if they can’t go back home.

An addict from Westbury, who goes by the name Colin feels there are too many criminals taking advantage of the shelters.

He said they’d already smuggled in dagga and once people started smoking, they would bang doors and act unruly.

He said this was because they felt they were being held there against their will, and attempted to provoke authorities.

Last Wednesday, the police had to escort another offender from the premises, after it was found that he had replaced the lock on the main entrance gate and was opening it for others at midnight.

Police are still apprehending street-dwellers who have not heeded the national state of emergency declaration.

Picture by Michel Bega

While professional drug councillors, social workers and cleaning and cooking staff members are still reporting for work in rehabs like LRC (Life Recovery Centre) in Randfontein, the iThemba facility in Krugersdorp and many others in the Pretoria region too, there seems to be at least one local positive spin to the Covid 19 outbreak – a concerted effort to stem the drug endemic on our streets by angels in uniform.

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.