Ex nurse turns tavern to rehab centre
Oasis brings hope to local youth
Three years ago Victoria Thabethe, 62, of Jiyane Section in Tembisa, was so riled by the use of nyaope in her community, she decided to do something about it.
She closed down her tavern of 30 years, Lovers Inn, and converted it into a rehabilitation centre, the Tenth Commandment Community Care Centre.
MamLovey, as she is known, has helped many addicts turn their lives around. One of them is Bafana Zulu, 32, who claims he started smoking nyaope when he broke up with his girlfriend and mother to one of his three children.
“My [drug] supplier gave me the first dose for free. He said to me ‘welcome to a new world’ but I did not understand what he meant at first, but now I do.
“The nyaope world is different from the real world,” Zulu said.
Another recovering addict, Daniel Mabatlo, 27, said his addiction almost destroyed his parents’ marriage.
“A friend introduced me to the drug. I would lie to my parents, saying I needed money for textbooks to feed my habit.
“At times I would not go to class for weeks. I had secured an internship programme with a construction company but I was rejected because I failed a drug test,” Mabatlo said.
“When my parents realised I smoked nyaope, they stopped paying my fees. I dropped out and smoked all the time.”
Thabethe said many of the addicts she now helps used to sell her empty beer bottles when she operated the tavern.
“They told of stories about how they slept in toilets at Mooifontein cemetery. One day they came to the tavern at midnight and told me that they were going to church and the first thing that came to my mind was that they must be practising satanism. I started giving them food and they appreciated it,” she said.
Thabethe, a former nurse, initially founded an initiative that distributed food parcels to the elderly in her community.
“Though it broke my heart, I informed the elderly that I would no longer bring food because I wanted to help the boys.
“I closed down the businesses, bought dozens of second hand clothes, turned the tavern into a sleeping area and I visited them at the cemetery,” she said.
“I gave them food and told them that I had prepared a place for them and that those who were willing to change their lives were welcome to stay at my house,” she recalled.
The next day, dozens of addicts flocked into her home.
“I did not expect so many. I gave each of them books and asked them to write about their lives.”
Thabethe said some of the addicts she assisted were now employed.
“I recently assisted a senior nurse who smoked with young boys outside Tembisa hospital where she worked.
“After she recovered, I spoke to hospital management and she was reinstated, but transferred to a different hospital.”