Blame game as addicts cry for help
THE blame game between the incumbent administration of Tshwane and the ANC has continued, this time around over failure to uproot nyaope in the city and surrounding townships.
Nyaope addicts Sowetan spoke to outside the Mabopane train station lamented that rehabilitation centres were not readily available to them.
“We want to stop this thing. It’s killing us. But it’s hard to get into rehab. They tell us to come back after months.
“The only thing you do while waiting is to smoke and smoke. You end up not going [to rehab],” said an addict who declined to be identified.
His friend, whom he shared a smoke with, agreed with him that chances of accessing rehabilitation were daunting. “I’ve tried many times to get into rehab. I gave up because I was told to wait.”
But for 2015/16 financial year, former Tshwane mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa had set aside R50-million to fight the nyaope scourge.
This money was largely to be used for rehabilitating addicted youth. Now the DA-led coalition administration has blamed the previous city government of doing a shoddy job in the fight against nyaope.
The country was shocked last week in the wake of news that some nyaope smokers in Tshwane townships were now sharing blood to get their fix.
The reports once again brought to surface that nyaope was still a scourge in the capital city.
“They did nothing,” Sakkie du Plooy, the metro’s MMC for health and social development, said of Ramokgopa’s administration.
He said data now at his disposal showed most of the R50-million was not spent properly. Du Plooy said R9.6million of this allocation was donated to 48 NGOs, a number of whom were not qualified for the job.
“The previous administration passed on the responsibility to the NGOs, hoping that they would do the job.
“There’s a long story about how this R50-million was distributed. Not all of it was used,” Du Plooy said.
“There was also major fraud involved in handing [over of] this money. That is now under investigation.”
Du Plooy said another anomaly was that management of the R50-million was placed under a deputy director working in an understaffed office.
“There is nothing wrong with his capability but he was struggling with two staff members to manage distribution of the money to different NGOs.
“The administration of this whole thing, especially the monitoring, was totally inadequate,” he said.
Tebogo Joala, ANC’s spokesman in Tshwane, said the current metro was deflecting attention on its failures by blaming Ramokgopa’s administration.
“They are now over five months in office. We committed money and resources.
“We were at an advanced stage of dealing with the scourge of drugs, particularly nyaope,” said Joala.
“We had assembled various stakeholders, most of which are in the practice of dealing with drugs and rehabilitation.
“Instead of the DA and EFF-led government continuing on that positive programme we’ve established, they are blaming us.
“They are not responding with urgency to this issue.”
Last week Gauteng education MEC Panyaza Lesufialso expressed concern over nyaope in schools.
“I’ve tried many times to get into rehab. I was told to wait.