Drug abuse is so bad in Eastridge, some girls are forced into prostitution to support their addiction.
|||Drug abuse is so bad in Eastridge, an economically depressed suburb of Mitchells Plain, that some girls are forced into prostitution to support their addiction, most houses are barricaded to deter thieves and parents struggle with rebellious children.
So residents participated in a People Against Gangsterism and Drugs (Pagad) march in the area on Sunday.
“They steal what they can, they sell their bodies just to have money for their next fix. It’s disgusting, but also really sad. But we must have the backbone to stand up and unite. Parents must also stop being in denial,” Eastridge grandmother Valerie Paries said as she and about 300 residents marched to protest against the area’s drug lords and gangs.
Paries and other parents, including like Rosaline Diedericks and Amelia Kannemeyer, said burglaries were rife, but some were reluctant to report it to police because they feared intimidation, or they had lost faith in the police.
“Drugs are a serious problem for all of us. Children steal from their own homes and fight with their parents. We can’t continue like this,” said Diedericks.
Pagad organiser Ighsaan Bester said his research into Eastridge, home to about 20 000 people, established there were at least 10 drug dealers in just one of the roads where Sunday’s march took place.
“This excludes many of the side roads where every fourth house is a drug house. It was also found that some dealers brand their clients by tattooing their shoulders, especially those who can’t pay,” he said.
The march over 2km was closely monitored by police to ensure protesters complied with march conditions, including not carrying weapons or stopping at suspected drug dens. As the crowd passed suspected drug dens, marchers shouted anti-drug slogans and warnings.
Pagad spokesman Osman Sahib said they wanted to form branches in all communities, offered free counselling to families affected by drugs, and planned to establish counselling centres at mosques.
aziz.hartley@inl.co.za
Cape Times