Killer drug baffles police as it leaves trail of corpses

MATHULI Mthiyane was praying at a church service in New Hanover, near Pietermaritzburg, when she received a call that her 16-year-old daughter had been admitted to hospital.

She prayed fervently during the journey to Edendale Hospital, where she found her teenager in a delirious state after a night out with friends last Sunday.

“She was rambling. I was told she had gone to a club with friends and had collapsed while dancing,” said Mthiyane.

It was only later that she discovered her daughter was one of 23 people who had been admitted to hospital after they had a violent reaction to a deadly drug that claimed the lives of five in Pietermaritzburg last weekend.

God had answered her prayers to keep her daughter safe, said Mthiyane.

The drug, which has police baffled, has claimed the lives of 11 people in KwaZulu-Natal in the past month. It goes by aliases such as “mercedes”, “data”, “umgwinyo” and “mitsubishi” and sells for R30. It is believed to have spread as far as Newcastle and Richards Bay, according to a member of the police task team established to identify the makers.

The killer drug comes as a white tablet the size of a Panado. Nearly 100 people, many of them schoolchildren, have been hospitalised VICTIM: Pupils say drugs are rampant at Zeph Dhlomo High School where Siyabonga Mngadi, left, died when their organs failed after they consumed the drug.

Task team member Sergeant Mthokozisi Ngobese said they had interviewed several victims and those who attended parties at which the drug was distributed, to identify the source and manufacturer. A report is to be handed to the police’s crime intelligence unit and the Hawks this week.

“We are not dealing with ordinary criminals here but a complex network. We are close to identifying the venues where they get manufactured,” said Ngobese.

News of the drug broke in Isipingo and KwaMashu on March 18, during two school break-up parties. Ngobese said many users consumed it unknowingly.

“It sometimes comes in straws or laced in sweets . . . we have sent several samples to the laboratory to identify its agents and their concentrations,” he said.

At Zeph Dhlomo High School in KwaMashu, where two died after taking the drug, pupils spoke openly about the substance.

One pupil, Siyanda, said drugs were rampant at the school and one of the dead pupils, Siyabonga Mngadi, 19, was a known addict. Mngadi’s family confirmed he was using drugs.

Siyanda said: “My girlfriend and I took one, but it was too strong so we are sticking to lighter stuff. We don’t want to die.”

Dumisani Buthelezi, director of the Khanyanjalo Drug Detox Rehabilitation Programme in Ntuzuma, said that from what he had gathered the makers blended agents such as rat poison, antiretrovirals, bleach, battery acid and heroin. “You can imagine this blend. It’s a deadly cocktail. The dealers are waging a new biological warfare that is killing the young generation.”