The Gauteng Department of Community Safety has spent nearly an entire year promising the completion of a drug master plan to effectively deal with the scourge of drugs across the province.
In an about turn, the department now claims that the drug master plan falls out of its purview, and is the responsibility of the Gauteng Department of Social Development.
This was revealed in a written response to a question I posed to Gauteng Community Safety MEC, Sizakele Nkosi-Malobane.
However, at the recent Provincial Youth Summit, MEC Nkosi-Malobane stated that her department will be reinstating specialised drug units to deal with drug abuse.
The MEC’s department is responsible for the Drug Law Enforcement Framework, which will only be due in September 2015.
If Community Safety is charged with completing the framework by which the law is to be enforced – surely it would follow that they too would be responsible for the production of the provincial drug master plan?
The mixed messages emanating from the MEC leave little confidence in this ANC-led provincial administration to treat substance abuse with the gravitas it deserves.
The DA will continue to drive this issue, failure to do so will only allow this scourge to perpetuate while the ANC sticks its head in the sand.
Media enquiries:
Michele Clarke MPL
DA Gauteng spokesperson on Community Safety
060 558 8309