DREAMS GO UP IN SMOKE
More than a year after nyaope was declared illegal, addicts are still puffing away. Sandile Ndlovu took the pictures and tells the story through a Limpopo youth battling to beat the drug
DEADLY MIX: A nyoape addict crushes dagga underneath the pedestrian bridge which leads to Itsoseng Entrepreneurial Centre in the city of Polokwane, Limpopo. The nyaope drug is a mixture of heroin, dagga and tobacco, or other products such as rat poison and ARV pills
THABO Ramafemo and his friends were smoking dagga when they asked him to try something different.
“I took a first pull and I was knocked down till the next morning,” Ramafemo said about his first encounter with nyaope last year.
Now he is addicted to the drug and smokes on average at least 15 times a day.
“I am addicted, my brother. If I didn’t smoke I feel unbearable body cramps which force me to smoke the drug,” said Ramafemo, 25, of Moletjie near Polokwane.
The drug has ravaged communities, particularly in Durban and Tshwane townships, and has now reached once-peaceful communities like Polokwane.
In a bid to curb the scourge, last April then justice minister Jeff Radebe and Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi signed an amendment to the Drugs and Trafficking Act, making nyaope illegal.
But this has clearly not deterred Ramafemo and many addicts who continue to have access to the heroin-based drug cocktail.
And kicking the habit is easier said than done. Addicts have to go through a rigorous rehabilitation process which includes the administering of opioid substitution therapy (OST). This offers a medical helping hand to opioid drug addicts who are trying to quit.
Nyaope addiction has been linked to a sharp rise in certain categories of crime, including common rob- bery, shoplifting and pickpocketing as addicts seek ways to feed their habit. According to the South African Police Service in Limpopo, drugrelated crime statistics showed an increase of 18.92%.
Ramafemo makes his money as an informal porter and barber in the Polokwane CBD.
“I charge R30 or R50 for a 1km trip [carrying luggage] and R5 for a hair cut.”
He buys half a gram of heroin for R150, a dagga pack for R3, R2.50 for a cigarette and 50 cents for a wrap.
He left school in Grade 12 “because of family problems”.
“I quit school so that I can support myself. But I met [the] wrong friends in town.”
Ramafemo’s dream now is to return to school, turn over a new leaf and achieve his childhood goal of being a radio newsreader.
But until he kicks the habit, his dreams may just go up in smoke like those of many others hooked on the deadly nyaope.