Most crimes committed in South Africa have their roots in drug addiction, says Ebrahim Dawood, the founder and director of the Refocus and Upliftment Foundation (RAUF), a drug-rehab organisation.
According to Mr Dawood, more than 60% of crime nationally was related to substance abuse, and in the Western Cape, this figure is closer to 80%.
“It’s not just about the numbers, it’s about the ripple effect that drugs have on society. The effects are profound and far-reaching,” he said.
The RAUF opened in Durban in 1998 and has a rehabilitation centre there. Over the years, support groups for recovering drug addicts and their families, counselling, drug awareness programmes, as well as feeding programmes were also started in KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng, as well as Lansdowne and Portland in Mitchell’s Plain.
“We started the programme in Cape Town in 2006. The need for programmes like ours is very big. We have a 70% success rate, and I think much of it has to do with the fact that we empower families to deal with it. We don’t just work with the addict but their families as well,” Mr Dawood said.
On Saturday October 26, the Cape Town chapter hosted a fund-raiser in Lansdowne as the organisation is not government-funded.
The Cape Town co-ordinator, Shahied Kimmie, 50, said he had been a recovering drug addict for 15 years and the RAUF had saved his life.
“As a drug addict, all you can think of the minute you wake up is who am I going to con today, or who am I going to rob because nothing else matters than your next fix. I started off with dagga then moved on to mandrax, but as an addict, you are always searching for a better ‘high’, so I went on to heroin. I lived this life for 15 years. Getting off the heroin is like the stuff you see in the movies,” Mr Kimmie said.
He added that his addiction had led him to lose everything he owned.
“I used to own a business, and gradually all the money I made went to feeding my addiction… I ended up living on the streets because my family couldn’t handle me stealing from them anymore. I used to live with drug merchants at one stage.
“I was in a big accident, and as I lay in the ambulance, I heard the paramedic say he can’t find a pulse or a good vein to put a drip in. He eventually found a vein on my other arm. Not even this near-death experience made me change my ways.
“It was only when another man died next to me in a hokkie where we used to do drugs that I decided to make a change. It was not even his death, it was the thought of my mother having to come get my body from a place like this, that motivated me to make the change.”
His family did not have money to send him for rehabilitation, so Mr Kimmie approached the RAUF.
“Rehabilitation is expensive and most of the people we help are underprivileged. We have a three-pronged approach, which includes a therapeutic programme to empower the caregivers. We have a spiritual aspect and a feeding scheme every Tuesday and Saturday.
“The addict must show commitment to all the programmes, as these prepare them for the institute in Durban. This is the same programme I underwent. I took part in all the programmes here. Then I got the opportunity to go to the rehabilitation centre in Durban and then only I saw the light,” Mr Kimmie said.
For one person to attend this programme, which includes all their daily needs, including toiletries, it costs the organisation R100 000 a year, Mr Kimmie said.
For more information on the Cape Town support groups, contact Mr Kimmie at 071 468 3779.
