NC youths brains harmed by booze

AROUND sixty out of every thousand young people in the Northern Cape suffer from irreversible brain damage due to alcohol damage during pregnancy.

This is according to the MEC for Social Development, Mxolisi Sokhatsha, who was addressing the Portfolio Committee on Social Development yesterday.

The committee is conducting a week-long oversight visit to the Province and will, amongst others, pay a visit to the rehabilitation centres in Kimberley and De Aar.

Sokhatsha said substance abuse was a challenge in the Province and that it has devastating effects on communities.

“Foetal alcohol spectrum disor- der is prevalent among farming communities in Upington and De Aar and is even worse in Kimberley, with Galeshewe recording rates of 11 percent among young people. Both rural and urban areas are negatively impacted in the same way,” Sokhatsha said.

The acting chairwoman of the portfolio committee, Hope Malgas, said the problem was however not just limited to the Northern Cape.

“The Nelson Mandela Metro and the farming communities in the Western Cape are also affected. It is really sad to see children born with this condition,” Malgas said.

She added that part of the visit was to ascertain whether the department’s programmes were having an impact in resolving challenges such as poverty, unemployment and inequality.