Dagga was the ruin of this youngster’s life

In the end, alone and forsaken, he died aged 56, writes Des du Triou.

Knew a youngster who, in his teens, decided to ditch school and take up an unconventional lifestyle, smoking pot and thumbing his nose at society.

Slowly the years drifted past in a hazy euphoria until, one day, he woke with nothing but the shabby clothing on his emaciated body and a cold stogie in his fingers.

From there he stumbled on, from one intervention to another, from one institution to the next, always his master close at hand, the marijuana zol.

Try as he may, he could not escape its insidious grasp.

It led him into prison, into mental institutions, psychiatrists labelled him schizoid, society marked him a pariah.

Delusions tormented him, leading to bouts of violent rage.

In the end, alone and forsaken and in a pitiful state, he died aged 56. I know this because he was my nephew.

Stop calling Zuma former president

Maybe Jacob Zuma will get the message that he is over and out if newspapers don’t always write: “Former president Jacob Zuma!”

He is just Jacob Zuma, the most expensive pensioner in our country, that he saddled with debts of billions.

Bee, Mpumalanga