A “master plan” to deal with the serious drug problem in Cape Town is being considered, Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa said.
|||Cape Town - A “master plan” to deal with the serious drug problem in Cape Town is being considered, Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa said on Monday.
“I made this point a year ago when I was here that this thing of yours here of calling the army in townships is not going to work. Drugs is a complex matter,” he told Sapa in a phone interview.
“There are many areas here in the Western Cape that are affected, Mitchells Plain being one of them. I have mentioned Philippi as a pilot project and the positive thing is that the mayor (Patricia de Lille) is with us in the thinking of our approach.”
He said his was a “lasting approach” which involved the social development, health, education, and police departments in a partnership.
“What do we do with these kids who have been hooked by drug lords? We have a responsibility to deal with these kids and this should be led by social development.
“It's not something you come in one day and wipe away.”
He said he was satisfied with the police's fight against drugs in the province but that the flare-up of violence among gangs needed attention. He had already been in discussion with De Lille and was set to make an announcement in a week or two.
De Lille's spokesman Solly Malatsi confirmed the two met on June 18 in connection with a drug campaign. He said Mthethwa agreed to consult the provincial government in the matter.
ANC deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa visited Mitchells Plain on Saturday and called for a focused anti-drug campaign.
“We now require at national level a focus, a direct focus in Mitchells Plain,” he told community leaders at the Shekinah Tabernacle in the area.
“We should immediately begin to take action and, even if at provincial level we may not have such success, which we should have, that there should be a campaign... .”
Ramaphosa said the focus of such an initiative would be to rid the area of widespread drug addiction and drug lords who preyed on young children.
Local residents told the African National Congress leader about the struggles they encountered with the interlinked problems of drugs and gangsterism. Ramaphosa said President Jacob Zuma had previously answered the call of parents with similar problems.
Eldorado Park, Johannesburg, resident Doreleene James, mother of a teenager undergoing drug rehabilitation, appealed to Zuma earlier in the year to rid the area of drug dealers.
Ramaphosa said Zuma swiftly responded with a clean-up of the area. Ramaphosa had been in the area to get feedback from people on issues affecting them.
Sapa
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