Unite in fight against drugs destroying our youth – Maimane

Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane spent his Youth Day morning marching alongside young people in Phoenix, Durban, where he urged residents to take up the fight against drug dealers.

“The fight against the people who sell drugs in our communities – and who use children to sell them to other children – is a battle that can only be won if we all stand together and fight it on all fronts,” Maimane told those who marched to Phoenix police station.

“And by all I mean parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters. I mean teachers and principals, preachers and social workers. I mean politicians, police officers and doctors.”

Maimane urged residents to help police in their quest to arrest and prosecute drug dealers.

“Nothing destroys the life of a child like the effects of drug addiction. Nothing steals their youth faster than growing up in a culture of drug abuse, violence and gangsterism,” he said.

“Many more of you are watching helplessly as your boys and girls are targeted,” Maimane said.

Maimane went on to criticise government for its slow re-establishment of a specialised drug unit. “What we finally got, a year after President Zuma promised to reintroduce such a unit in his 2016 Sona speech, was 40 people sitting in the Hawks.

“It is hardly surprising that this understaffed office has made no impact at all in the fight against drugs,” Maimane said. – ANA