Fourth toxic drug death prompts warning calls
The death of four KZN young people has prompted calls for more to be done to warn youngsters against illegal “club drugs” which sometimes include lethal toxins such as Rattex.
|||Durban - The number of deaths from suspected toxic ecstasy has risen to four, police have confirmed.
The deaths have prompted calls for more to be done to warn youngsters against illegal “club drugs” which sometimes include lethal toxins such as the rat poison, Rattex.
Three of the four had been celebrating the end of the school first term at a “slaughterhouse” - a drug den - in Durban’s KwaMashu township at the weekend, where they drank alcohol and used drugs.
KwaZulu-Natal police spokesman, Major Thulani Zwane, confirmed the deaths had risen to four and police had opened inquest dockets.
The dead are Simphiwe Dludla, 18; Siyabonga Mngadi, 19; Nokwanda Mvula, 25; and Mduduzi Zakwe, 29.
Mvula’s death was not related to the drug-taking at the end-of-term party.
She was taken to King Dinuzulu Hospital on March 10 before dying six days later.
All four were from KwaMashu.
Zwane said a task team, which included the Hawks, had been set up to investigate the deaths.
Mvula’s sister, Sihle, said they were shocked by the incident. She indicated that they had not been aware that she had been using drugs.
Drug abuse expert, Professor Shanta Balgobind Singh, of the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Criminology and Forensic Studies department, said ecstasy was a “club drug” which youngsters often used at parties.
“The only way to find out exactly what is in a particular pill, and in what quantity, is to have it laboratory tested,” she said.
But she warned that dangerous substances such as Rattex, a readily available brand of poison, baby powder and baking powder were known to be mixed with ecstasy to increase the quantity and to make it affordable to users.
“These can be fatal depending on what ingredients are used,” she said.
Singh said drug-related reported crimes had doubled nationally in the past year and warned that KZN was worse off, with communities grappling with drugs such as whoonga and sugars.
The most recent national crime statistics showed that drug-related crimes had jumped from 134 687 incidents in 2010/11 to 266 902 in 2014/15.
In the KwaMashu area, filed under Ntuzuma in the national statistics, incidences had increased to 702 from 174 in the same period.
However, the apparent increase in KwaMashu drug cases should be treated with some caution because the police have consolidated and changed some reporting areas in recent years.
“These are mind-altering drugs that are very dangerous. For girls it can lead them to a life of prostitution, and research has shown that people from lower social-economic backgrounds are more prone to use because of poverty and other factors,” Singh said.
“Very often, when one is addicted, they resort to stealing and you find that others will steal from their own homes to feed their habits,” she said.
The Department of Health had at the time of publication not replied to Daily News’ questions on numbers of youngsters admitted to public hospitals and clinics in the aftermath of the weekend tragedy .
But the Department of Social Development said on Wednesday that 32 people had been affected and were being seen by social workers.
Lungelo Zulu, the KZN Community Policing Forum Youth Board chairman, said they were shocked by the death of pupils, apparently from ecstasy, and were busy drawing up a strategy to better tackle the drug scourge.
He said they would work with the police, community and the Department of Community Safety.
He said they had been aware of similar incidences in Plessislaer, Pietermaritzburg.
“We need to be a united front against crime and drugs. Our message to parents is that they must support their children.”
KwaMashu councillor, Dumisani Ngema, described illegal drugs as “demonic” and called for churches, schools, NGOs and political parties to unite against the scourge.
“The truth is drugs are widespread,” he said.
“I reject the notion that it is because of poverty because I grew up in a four-roomed house in the township, sleeping in the lounge my whole life, but I have never used drugs.
“This is a result of peer pressure and personal decisions they make,” he said.
Ngema said he was worried by the number of boys that loitered at street corners all day and said these were known to be drug pushers.
“This won’t stop without intervention and awareness,” he said.
He said random drugs and weapons’ raids had been conducted at John Dube High School this year and said pupils at neighbouring Nhlakanipho High School had been warned the police would raid at any time without warning.
But Ngema said drug abuse was even more of a danger for girls, who became vulnerable to sexual assault by their male peers.
“They are all vulnerable in their different ways, but for girls it seems to be worse.
“The other week, a girl from outside of KwaMashu had to be rescued by police after she had been beaten by the boys she was drinking and getting high with because they were trying to force her to have sex with them.
“She ran away and was running on people’s rooftops, and fortunately those people in the community came out and called the police,” he said.
Ngema also warned of the close relationship between alcohol and ecstasy, and said drug peddlers often milled around taverns and bottle stores selling drugs.
Daily News