Cape Town – National Police Commissioner, General Riah Phiyega, says drugs have become such a problem in South Africa that it requires a proactive intervention to curb the scourge as reactive measures are not sustainable.
On an ongoing basis, police confiscate tens of thousands of drugs and have been closing off clandestine laboratories.
Police have shut down over 30 000 unlicensed liquor outlets around the country over the past year, as well.
Briefing the Portfolio Committee on Police on the National Crime Statistics for the 1 April 2014 to 31 March 2015 period on Tuesday, Phiyega said while the statistics demonstrated operational policing successes, more still needed to be done to coordinate government departments when it comes to the implementation of the drug masterplan.
The Commissioner said education awareness campaigns at school level, amongst other things, could be one of the best measures that could be used to fight substance abuse and the dangers of crime.
“We also noticed … that drug circulation also contributed quite significantly to some of the crimes that we are managing for this year.
“There is a drug masterplan that has been adopted by government and all of us as government departments have to contribute our own parts towards the drug master plan. We believe that more needs to be done as various national government departments, provinces and municipalities to ensure that we coordinate and we contribute optimally our participation as that will assist us in reducing the crime,” she said.
Phiyega said during the 2014/ 15 financial year, police confiscated just over 440 million kilos of cannabis, 302 791 tablets of mandrax, 122 140 kilos of cocaine and 598 743 kilos of crystal meth (tik).
Other drugs that were confiscated include 1 926 256 kilos of nyaope, 304 865 kilos of whoonga and 212 362 kilos of heroin.
She said 57 clandestine drug laboratories were dismantled, of which 31 of the labs were hydroponic laboratories, with the other 26 being synthetic chemical laboratories.
Police shut down 37 979 unlicensed liquor or illegal liquor premises, with 1.5 trillion litres of liquor being confiscated.
“I want to indicate … [that] in 2014 alone, 237 South Africans were arrested elsewhere in the world as drug mules and at Interpol, it was reported that 300 drug couriers en-route to South Africa were [intercepted].
“… We used to see ourselves as a transit drugs country but now we are both a consumer, a manufacturer and a transit state and the numbers of confiscation of the drugs we have will show you exactly that.” – SAnews.gov.za
