Reikhutsitse Malala: Soshanguve hero who helps drug addicts

Reikhutsitse Malala remembers staying up late every weekend to watch his favourite superhero series, The Mask of Zorro and Superman, and how he would be immersed by the extraordinary powers of the heroes – as he envisioned
himself some superhero with super natural powers.

As a child he was mesmerised by the heroes’ phenomenal abilities on screen, which allowed Malala, who grew up in Soshanguve, Pretoria, to become the township hero who would fight drug addiction and the township’s supervillain, nyaope.

“I remember me and my siblings, Mothusi and Maggie, used to play Zorro, with sticks pretending they were swords.
From a young age I loved to see myself as a hero, with powers and helping people,” Malala, 34, said with a laugh.

“Until today, even though I cannot fight people with sticks, the playtime memories with my brother inspired me to think beyond; that it is possible for me to be Superman or Zorro.”

Malala’s mother and father taught him the critical importance of good education, a career, financial independence
and most importantly, humility and discipline.

As the middle child, Malala said, his parents described him as a child being very charismatic, adventurous and a big dreamer with a huge heart, as he always aimed to make his siblings laugh and always strived to take care of the family.

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After high school Malala went to Tshwane University of Technology where he became the youngest journalism department graduate at 19.

Although his initial plan was to pursue sound engineering, his love for radio and support from his uncle Justice Malala inspired his career path.

“My uncle was a newspaper editor and news anchor and he would occasionally be on radio as well, so when I said I wanted to do journalism he guided and mentored, but also inspired me a lot,” he said.

However, said Malala, while life seemed to be on the right track for him, drug addiction in Pretoria was rapidly growing, and the communities were being ravaged by nyaope.

He also said the discipline his parents instilled in him played a huge role in high school at Kgomotso Secondary School, when a lot of his classmates and people in his age group started experimenting with nyaope, which
came with a lot of peer pressure.

He said 80% of the people he grew up with and also went to high school with had all been deep into drugs, which broke his heart because many of them were his friends.

Even though there was a lot of stigma around being associated with an addict, he felt it was his responsibility to help his brothers.

“So, one day around 2010, when I was at Central City in Mabopane, I saw an old friend of mine, Cry. We used to share a

desk in high school, and he was hard-core into drugs,” Malala said.

“It broke my heart because I knew how smart he was and even though I wanted to help him, I just didn’t know how. But I saw his life wasting away all because of that drug.”

Although he moved to Johannesburg to pursue a new job later that year, he never stopped thinking of ways to help his childhood friend. He moved back to Soshanguve in 2017 and ran into Cry again … and his condition was worse.

“When I saw him that time in 2017, the desperation came rushing back and the urge I had to help my childhood friend led to the establishing of the CleanUp Squad organisation, which has helped more than 500 drug addicts so far,” Malala said.

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“From the desperation of helping one friend, seeing how bluetooth nyaope was wiping out the youth of Soshanguve,
I knew I had to be the change I wanted to see, or rather, I had to make the change happen that I wanted to see.”

He said while the journey was not without hurdles, he wanted to make enough noise to get enough sponsors.

He especially wanted to help open a skills development centre. This would help recovered addicts not to relapse and would assist to also give them enough skills to start afresh.

– reitumetsem@citizen.co.za