Four other girls between 14 and 16-years-old were also removed.
*Sharon Arnolds spoke to Urban News about her life as a teenager and an occasional drug user.
Urban News: Have you ever taken drugs?
Sharon Arnolds: I’ve been using drugs since last year but I only do it weekends, I use drugs willingly.
UN: How do you buy the drugs or who supplies it for you?
SA: My boyfriend (21) supplies the drugs but I have to give him something for it.
UN: What do you have to give him?
SA: Sex
UN: Are you okay with that?
SA: He is my boyfriend, it’s my duty to give him sex but I don’t like doing it.
Arnolds lost her virginity when she was 16-years-old to her current boyfriend.
UN: What goes through your mind when you have sex with him?
SA: Nothing.
UN: Why do you take drugs?
SA: I take drugs when I don’t want to sleep. I don’t want to sleep when I’m drinking and partying. I do it every weekend.
UN: Do you make time for your schoolwork?
SA: Mondays to Thursdays I make time for my schoolwork but never weekends.
Arnolds says she attends parties and drinks alcohol because it’s fun. She says the life she’s living now is not the life she wants to live forever.
UN: What were you doing in the flat on Friday evening?
SA: We were just drinking, it was my friend’s birthday.
UN: Is that flat a lolly lounge?
SA: No, they only sell drugs from outside the flat.
UN: How often do you drink at the flat?
SA: I usually do it weekends.
UN: Do you attend school?
SA: I was suspended from school for bunking. A teacher also caught me drinking, not at school but at Viking with my friends.
UN: Were you pressured into this lifestyle?
SA: No, I do it for fun out of my own freewill.
UN: What went through your mind on Friday evening when you were removed from the flat?
SA: Nothing, I was too drunk to realise what was happening.
Arnolds was taken to a community leader who arranged for police to take her in. The police questioned her as to where she stays, Arnolds told the police she stays with her grandmother at the Hillbrow Flats.
UN: Where are your parents and who do you live with?
SA: I stay with my mother and step-father but I didn’t want to go home because my mother would’ve hit me. My granny was very angry. My father stays in Extension Eight but I don’t want to see him because he hasn’t been there for me all these years. I always wanted him to be part of my life but I decided last year that I don’t want him to be part of my life because he has never been there for me.
UN: Do you ever think of your future or have goals for yourself?
SA: I do think about my future, I think about earning money. I want to finish school and now I’m looking forward to a brighter future.
She says her being removed on Friday evening is a blessing in disguise. Her 15-year-old sister was among the five girls removed from the flat.
SA: I’m very thankful to everyone who put me in a safe place. I also want my mother to know that I love her.
*Not her real name.
