South Africa is facing a drug abuse epidemic. Last year a bumper crop of opium was harvested in Afghanistan, and experts say some of it has hit our streets in the form of heroin. According to the 2006 United Nation Drug Report, countries and cities on the main world drug routes are the worst affected. Witbank in Mpumalanga is one of them.
Witbank or Emalahleni is close to the Mozambican border. Recently it’s become a haven for heroin addicts - and for the dealers who supply them. To get to the lucrative European markets, drug dealers make use of the East African route. Heroin is flown from Pakistan to Tanzania. It then goes via land to Mozambique and on to South Africa. From here much of it is flown back to Europe.
The sleepy town of Witbank in Mpumalanga has seen an alarming increase in heroin abuse recently, largely because of its close proximity to the lucrative East African heroin route.
This week Special Assignment follows a group of Mpumalanga youngsters who are on the receiving end of this illicit drug trade.
We speak to a pensioner who supports three grandsons, all of them heroin addicts. One boy’s mother is an alcoholic, so the pensioner looks after her as well. The mother of another boy is harassed by her son on a daily basis for money to feed his addiction. It’s got so bad, she’s now taken out a restraining order.
In Witbank a combination of heroin and dagga is called pinch, and to support their addiction the youth work at a down town parking lot washing and parking cars. Most of these young addicts no longer go to school. Most of them have health problems.
This moving look at the impact of drugs on a small community, is produced by Thuli Nlhapo and was filmed by Andre Gous.
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