Cape Town - Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini has called on communities across the country to step up and take the lead in the fight against drug and alcohol abuse.
Dlamini along with her Deputy, Maria Ntuli, addressed hundreds of people in Khayelitsha township, outside Cape Town, on Wednesday during the launch of an anti-drug and substance abuse drive.
The campaign was launched in the Western Cape because the province has the largest problem of drug and substance abuse in the country, particularly the use of tik.
The programme has the backing of several stakeholders, including the South African Police, religious institutions and non-profit organisations.
Dlamini challenged communities to stop asking what the government was doing about the problem, but instead, to ask themselves what they could do to stop the scourge.
She said that communities should not allow taverns to be built close to schools, to be run "day and night", or to sell alcohol to children less than 18 years.
"It's your responsibility to ensure that taverns are not built close to schools," she said.
She said that if such alcohol outlets were located near schools, it could result in both teachers and learners going out to drink and perhaps even girls being raped.
Dlamini took issue with adverts which lure children to drink beer, whisky or other substances.
The gathering saw some community members who had been affected and addicted to drugs to testify about their circumstances.
Venetia Orgill, a mother of four from Mitchells Plain, told her story about how she divorced at the age of 24 because of her drug-addicted husband.
She said that her drug-addicted son, who had passed away, started taking drugs when he was 14 years. He committed suicide at the age of 27.
However, Orgill was happy to say that one of her daughters, who had also been a drug addict, had since got herself clean after undergoing spiritual rehabilitation in the last nine months.
Dlamini had harsh words for Thulani Matye, 29, from Mfuleni near Khayelitsha when he said that he was on drugs because he did not have a job.
"I won't allow you to destroy your life. Don't play with our emotions. I'm very angry with you," she said. She told him to change his life by seeking counseling and going to school.
Matye told BuaNews that he took all sorts of drugs - it was a habit he started 19 years ago.
Ntuli bemoaned that drugs were turning "ordinary people into monsters" and she called on families to educate their children about a drug-free South Africa.
She also made a strong warning to some of the foreign nationals who were selling drugs in this country.
She urged South Africans to earn a decent life and not to get involved in selling drugs.
While she did not mention names, her warning comes in the wake of the execution of South African Janice Brown Linden in China on Monday because of allegations of drug trafficking.
In the latest incident, Nobanda Nolubabalo, 23, originally from the Eastern Cape, has been arrested in Thailand for allegedly trafficking cocaine hidden in her dreadlocks.
