According to Ms Zodwa Mzondo, director of SA National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (SANCA) the city is the drug capital of South Africa.
The harsh statement she made on Monday, March 10 was previously only whispered about, but she outright said, “Yes, eMalahleni is the hub of drug trafficking and abuse in the country.”
In March 2013 approximately 92 drug addicts knocked on Sanca’s door for help. A year later that number has increased to 104 addicts seeking help in March alone.
The youngest patient is only 10 years old. This boy is addicted to inhalants and a typical day for him starts with sniffing glue or benzene. He came to Sanca in January.
“The highest incidence of clients reporting heroin as their primary substance of abuse, at 38 percent, occurred at Sanca Witbank,” said Dr David Fourie, convenor of Sanca’s National research portfolio committee.
The province has recorded the highest number of addicts admitting that the drug is their first choice, according to a profile on people who sought drug rehabilitation last year.
Shedding light on what is happening in eMalahleni Mzondo said there is a clear difference in what ‘white’ drug users and ‘black’ drug users prefer.
“The ‘white’ addicts use more heroin and ‘black’ addicts are more inclined to use Nyaope, a cheaper heroin derivative,” Mzondo said.
Mr Danie Veldsman, a social worker with 45 years experience, said 60% of the youth between 16 years and 28 years is addicted to drugs. Veldsman, who has worked at Sanca for 15 years shared this shocking figure saying it is time parents realise this is a ticking time bomb.
He said children younger than 10 years start experimenting with inhalants and dagga.
“I had a patient who was only seven when I first met him. He inhaled glue after his brothers aged nine and 11 years showed him how. Today he is in a children’s home. He is nine years old now and he is still addicted. This is only but one of the sad stories I have encountered in my career at Sanca,” Veldsman said.
He agreed the drug of choice is Nyaope and heroin.
He also warned the stimulant drug, CAT, specifically called ‘methcathinone’ is quickly becoming one of the more used drugs.
Veldsman is worried that drug users are becoming younger and no longer opting for a single drug; instead, they are becoming multiple users.
A mother’s tears
When her daughter was born, her mother’s eyes shimmered with love. She had so many dreams and aspirations for the little bundle she carried for nine months.
“My daughter is a drug addict,” the mother, who wishes to stay anonymous, said in an interview with WITBANK NEWS.
This short six letter sentence was entwined with a host of emotions, heartbreaking, frustration and empty prayers.
At 30 years old, her daughter lives on the street, begs for money and when she gets a small donation from a stranger, she runs to whom she thinks is her best friend, her drug dealer.
“She has been addicted for the past nine or 10 years. I have lost count. A friend from school injected her in her hand one evening while they went out partying. Just that one time and my daughter was stolen from me.”
How do you detach yourself from your flesh and blood? Do you keep on fighting or do you distance yourself from her to keep yourself sane?
This is what the mother answered, “I love her with all that is in me, but I have prayed that God takes her, at least then I would know she is safe.”
The mother said she looks into her grandchildren’s eyes, both now being raised by their fathers, as her daughter cannot even take care of herself, let alone her children and she realises her daughter made her own choice.
“I now know I have to let her sort out the rotten fruits of her choices. Yes, I have asked God to take her, but yet I am afraid for the phone call and the policeman’s voice on the other side telling me my once beautiful daughter overdosed.”
They are your child’s ‘best friends’
The drug trade in eMalahleni is a lucrative and well organized business and drug dealers the best ever salesmen.
An investigation into how easily people can be lured into the dark world of drugs revealed how drug dealers become the addict’s ‘best friend’.
“Sure my man, it’s me Harry. I guess everything is going well …” are just one of the ways the drug dealers keep contact with their main source of income, the addicts.
“It is easy on the street, if we need anything we call our dealer. He will be here,” said a couple aged 21 years and 24 years. They both live on the street and are regularly seen begging at a local shopping centre.
Like many others their dealer is filling that gap left by ‘absent parents’.
Mr Danie Veldsman, a social worker with 45 years experience, said he blames parents’ lack of interest in their children for the increasing drug usage in the city.
“It is easy to stick R1000 in your child’s hand and tell him to ‘disappear’, you are tired. In most households today both mom and dad works and come evenings and weekends they want their much needed rest. Instead of spending good quality time with their offspring, it is easier to send them on their way, no questions asked,” Veldsman said.
In most cases it is when meeting up with wrong friends that lead to that one time, that has you hooked on drugs forever.
Veldsman also explained that parents are not ‘drug-wise’. Most parents are not aware of or do not know how to interpret the warning signs of drug abuse.
“The youth is staggering under peer pressure. It is said humans are herd-animals. We want to belong. That in context means that especially a youngster will do anything to be “in” with the group. And having a drug dealer’s name on your cell phone, is one of the in-things in modern society,” Veldsman said.
