Tebogo Mokeri did everything short of chaining his 22-year-old son in the house to try and get him off the streets and off the drugs.
|||Johannesburg - Tebogo Mokeri did everything short of chaining his 22-year-old son in the house to try to get him off the streets and off the drugs.
He beat him up, got him arrested, gave him a job in his business to keep him busy and also got him into a technical school to keep him off the streets and learn a trade.
None of that worked. Not only is Mokeri’s son now deep into drugs but he is also a pusher who operates not far from his home - and he dropped out of school.
Mokeri has also lost his business - he went bankrupt because of the amount of money his son stole. He and his second wife are divorced, a break-up he attributes to the stress they suffered because of his son’s drug addiction.
For the past two years, Mokeri’s son has been living at his supplier’s place, peddling drugs.
His father sees him every day: dirty and high and selling drugs. It breaks Mokeri’s heart to see his son in such a bad way.
“It’s painful as his father to see that, but what can I say? He tells me that he is a grown-up and we can’t choose his life for him.
“I can’t even force him to stay at home. I tried everything for him but it does not help. He was even arrested for drug dealing but his dealer bailed him.
“I can’t shackle him in the house; I really don’t know what to do,” said the 48-year-old dad.
Mokeri, who is from Christiana in North West, has been working and staying in Claremont, Joburg, for many years. When he and his first wife divorced, he got custody of the children, who then stayed with their grandmother in North West.
When he got word that his teenage son back home was “being naughty”, he brought him back to Joburg to keep an eye on him.
When things got worse, Mokeri said, his son would steal everything from the family, including their pots, and sell them at a scrapyard.
He will never forget the day he realised his son was using tik. He found evidence of tik pipes.
It was then that he realised just how far gone his son was.
“I beat him up and he went to the police saying I had assaulted him and pointed a gun at him. They suggested that we see a social worker.
“When he realised that the police were not going to arrest me as he wanted, he broke all the windows at my flat,” Mokeri said.
The therapy with the social worker was unsuccessful and his son’s behaviour continued to spiral out of control.
Although his son has now chosen to live at the drug dealer’s house, he does come home once in a while.
When he does this, the family has to lock all their doors and watch the son when he is around - fearful of him stealing whatever he can lay his hands on.
“I’ve thought about taking him to rehab, but the truth is it has to start with the person themselves. He needs to want to stop,” he said.
Mokeri has lost all hope and does not know what to do to help his son.
He runs a soccer team for pensioners in the area and wants to do the same for youngsters.
“I want an entertainment area for children because the only thing we have here is a park; hence children entertain themselves with alcohol and drugs.
“I would also like to start counselling sessions because maybe the children are having problems at home and are scared to talk about it, and end up taking drugs,” he said.
botho.molosankwe@inl.co.za
The Star