Save my grandson from nyaope

Frail and sickly 73-year-old semi-blind pensioner Malizole Thabethe* has made a desperate plea to the Kathorus SAPS for help with his nyaope addict grandson.

He is pleading with the police to detain his 23-year-old grandson *Tshepo, and take him to a drug rehabilitation centre where he says the young man can have the “evil drug in his veins” cleaned up. He drew up an affidavit to this effect to hand in to the police.

“Tshepo has been a trouble since he started using drugs,” Thabethe said. “He (removed) all the cables inside the house, even at the main switch. We have to use candles for light.

“I even struggle to get water because he took all the taps inside and outside. I had to put a hosepipe in to get water, because when I buy and replace taps, he takes them and sells them again. We don’t have furniture. I use bricks to make a table.

“Tshepo, also sells his clothes to get money.

“When the date comes for me to get my grant, he demands my money and argues with me. When I buy food so that we can go to bed on a full stomach, he takes it to sell in order to buy drugs.

“He doesn’t help me with anything. I’m too old – I cannot do my gardening. The grass is all over and it is growing.

“The toilet is very dirty. The house is also dirty and empty. He throws his clothes all over the house. Sometimes he promises to fight me.

“I tried to take him to Palm Ridge Clinic (Sanca) to stop using drugs but he failed to attend”.

Wailing in anguish, Mkhulu Thabethe told Kathorus MAIL that although Tshepo has vandalised their home and stolen just about everything – from the plastic basins they use to wash themselves in to the entire fitted wall kitchen unit, the stove, garden taps and furniture – he still believes there is hope for his grandson.

Thabethe raised Tshepo single-handedly from the age of three.

Both Tshepo’s parents – Mkhulu’s son and his girlfriend – died within years of each other of what Mkhulu described as “Aids-related” illnesses, leaving him the sole guardian of their three young children, with Tshepo being the youngest.

“As a family, I had no problem raising them,” he said, fondly remembering his favouritegrandson.

Right from his elementary school days, Tshepo was diligent in everything he did, both at home and at school. He received excellent marks in almost all his studies, even excelling in maths and science. “He was just brilliant with his schoolwork and he was a good young boy to have around at home because he also ran errands for me,” said Mkhulu, his less-damaged right eye focused straight ahead as he spoke.

He recalled how his son, realising his death was close, told young Tshepo: “You will grow up with your Mkhulu and look after him when he reaches old age.”

Today, at 73, old man Thabethe feels old age has brought him nothing but pain and grief. “I curse the person who introduced my little Tshepo to nyaope,” he lamented as he inhaled a lungful of fresh air through his nostrils in a bid to suppress his surging grief.

Mkhulu cannot remember exactly at what point Tshepo’s life went off the rails. “Suddenly, I started to notice changes in his lifestyle and behaviour,” explained Mkhulu. He also became aware of several items beginning to go missing around the house.

Then Tshepo stopped taking his books with him to to school. And when Mkhulu enquired about this, Tshepo gave a myriad different reasons and explanations.

It was at that point that the old man decided to check things out for himself and visited Tshepo’s school. “I ended up being in regular contact with his class teacher, and she would tell when he was in class and when he had bunked school with his friends for their nyaope binges,” said Thabethe.

Over the past five years, old man Thabethe’s once beautiful (although modest) home has been turned into an empty shell. All the fittings on the walls, including the electrical mains switch, have been ripped off the walls. The entire wall-to-wall kitchen unit and stove are no longer there, a huge gaping hole remains where the kitchen tap used to be and the entire house is in total disarray.

Everything that Mkhulu once owned has been stolen and sold to neighbours for a fraction of its value, and his once warm home has been left almost bare. Outside, the yard is overgrown with weeds, and the walls, both inside and outside, need a fresh coat of paint.

“This is the life I have become accustomed to since this boy got hooked on this nyaope drug,” cried Mkhulu as I dropped him off at the Ramokonopi Police Station to give them a third copy of a document from the Palm Ridge Court, ruling that his grandson be detained and sent to a rehabilitation centre.

* Real names have been changed