Executive Mayor of Waterberg District Municipality
Mayor of Belabela Municipality
Colonel Kruger of SAPS
Ms Khulile Mashaba-Mtetwa of EMFN Consulting Farisani of the Department of Education
Councilors from district and local municipalities
Participants
Members of the media
Ladies and gentlemen
Good morning
Programme director, we are gathered to discuss a matter that is very central to our hearts in nation building efforts.
We have come together because we believe in the importance of creating strong families, cohesive communities and a winning prosperous nation.
President Jacob Zuma mentioned in the State of the Nation Address earlier this year that we should promote social cohesion and stable communities. President Zuma also announced that government will broaden the scope of reproductive health rights and provide services related to, amongst others, contraception, sexually transmitted infections, teenage pregnancy and sanitary towels for the indigent. The fight against substance abuse is a key aspect of that programme.
Today we reaffirm that teenage pregnancy and substance abuse will receive renewed and more energetic attention from government. Fighting substance abuse and teenage pregnancy is a collaborative effort.
Government cannot do it successfully alone, given the magnitude of this societal problem, hence the ruling party the African National Congress came with the dictum “Working together we can do more”.
It is therefore pleasing that the delegates at this summit include key decision-makers from government, academia, non-governmental organisations and non profit organisations. We are all united in seeking solutions.
Over the past decade there has been a rapid increase in the use and abuse of alcohol and other drugs by citizens of all ages, men and women, boys and girls.
Programme director, alcohol is said to be the most abused substance in South Africa followed by cannabis, commonly known as dagga.
It is alarming to note that the age of first experimentation with substances has dropped from teenagers to children aged between nine and 10 years old, which is in essence primary school children.
Reports state that children between the ages of 9 to 15 start with cigarettes, alcohol, dagga and mandrax.
If the problem is not detected early enough, they graduate to drugs such as heroin or cocaine.
The South African Community Epidemiology Network on Drug Use has also indicated that an increasing number of young patients is being admitted to rehabilitation centres for alcohol and other drug related problems.
It is important to mention, however, that accurate and current statistics on the abuse of alcohol and other drugs in South Africa is difficult to obtain.
Substance abuse or addiction to any substance is not a notifiable condition. Families and addicts are not obliged to report to the authorities.
This makes it difficult to have an accurate picture of the extent of the problem. We also do not want to create a scare and portray our nation as the capital of drug and alcohol abuse, because we are not.
However, the problem is serious enough and we want to deal with it before it is too late.
We do not want this scourge to destabilise our nation.
As you know, alcohol and other drugs are linked to a number of other social problems. These include road collisions, interpersonal violence especially between men and men leading to stabbing and other serious injuries, violence against women and children and general instability within households.
Programme director, as a department we are concerned that Belabela is one area in the province with a high rate of substance abuse e.g. Nyaupe mixture of ARVs. We are confident that the summit will pave a way forward to ensure that substance abuse is minimised at all cost because it is impacting negatively on the lives of the youths of this country.
As the department we will join forces with the department of safety, security and liaison including the police to curb substance abuse. We cannot fold our arms while substance abuse is taking the lives of our youths, we cannot allow the drugs and alcohol to destroy our future leaders.
While we cannot avoid lamenting and expressing our shock and displeasure, we should remember that the Summit is about finding solutions.
Delegates should therefore deliberate carefully and help us to improve programmes that will help arrest the spread of this scourge.
We need resolutions that will help us to improve education and awareness especially amongst the youth. It should be resolutions that help us to improve policing and law enforcement against drug traffickers and also which help us to improve treatment for addicts and support provided to families in distress.
The deliberations should help us to promote and implement the country`s National Drug Master Plan and the mini-drug master plans, which are our blueprints in the fight against substance abuse.
The National Drug Master Plan gives us a wide scope for intervention as it places emphasis on the reduction of supply and demand of substances as well as dealing with the impact and the harm caused.
The Drug Master Plan will be reviewed during the course of this year, for it to be strengthened in line with the current trends.
We must also strengthen the Provincial Substance Abuse Forums and the Local Drug Action Committees to make them more effective in fighting the scourge.
The most powerful weapon in fighting drugs is to reduce the demand and close the markets especially amongst the youth. We have to educate children and the youth to say "no” to drugs.
The government`s youth campaign, called "Ke Moja, No thanks, I`m fine without drugs”, needs to be revived and intensified in schools as well as through the media and community mobilisation.
We urgently call on youth organisations as well as the National Youth Development Agency to support us in promoting this message.
These messages should be mainstreamed in youth programmes and entertainment, and should target all youth, black and white, as all are affected.
The messages should empower children and young people to withstand peer pressure.
Parents, relatives, faith-based organisations, women`s clubs and other societal structures should also play a role in raising awareness and to provide support to the affected, young and old.
The private sector is also an important stakeholder in the campaign against substance abuse, in particular alcohol.
Business is an important stakeholder as well. They must seriously consider the impact of advertisements that glorify alcohol and which portray it as providing the ultimate enjoyment and fancy lifestyle.
There are various measures we can explore as government to restrict the sale of alcohol in particular. Government has opened a public debate about increasing the legal age for purchasing alcohol to 21 instead of 18. Whatever the outcome of this debate, it should enable us to raise awareness about the need to deal with the problem.
Programme director, it is very difficult to divorce substance abuse from teenage pregnancy as most of the youths get involved in the unprotected sexual relationships under the influence of drugs and alcohol.
In relation to the teenage pregnancy, when I addressed learners at Mavalani secondary school in Giyani where 57 learners were discovered to be pregnant. During that event I announced a multi- pronged strategies aimed at addressing the problem. The strategies included police investigating incidents in which some of the pregnant pupils are minors and deploying nurses to schools on a full-time basis.
The role of the nurses is to support teachers with school health activities and also provide health-related information to pupils.
In addition, the Youth Friendly Services Programme has been implemented at 255 of the province's 416 clinics where nurses are encouraged to be friendly and not judgemental when dealing with young people visiting clinics.
Ladies and gentlemen, the high rate of teenage pregnancy has also contributed hugely to the HIV infection because a clear indication is that the youngsters were involved in unsafe sex. This is indirectly defeating our department’s fight against the high rate of HIV infection in the province. The fact that Waterberg district has a high number of HIV infected people is another cause for concern
to the department.
We are confident that the summit will play a pivotal role to assist government to fight against substance abuse and the thorny issue of teenage pregnancy.
As the administrators, leaders from government and non- governmental organisations you are at the strategic position to assist us.
The battle can be won if we work together to build our communities.
I wish delegates a successful summit, and hope that by the second and last day you should have found solutions to the problems on the table.
I thank you.
Province
