Kenneth Meshoe says the international community should have acted when the US first complained about drug trafficking in Venezuela.
ACDP leader Reverend Kenneth Meshoe says President Cyril Ramaphosa should copy US President Donald Trump and deal with South Africa’s drug trafficking crisis.
Speaking to The Citizen on Wednesday, Meshoe said South Africa’s borders are so porous that it was easy for cartels to bring drugs into the country.
He said that while he has concerns with the manner in which Trump arrested a leader of a sovereign state, his actions could be justified if there is enough evidence to prove that Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro and his wife are involved in narco-terrorism. Maduro has appeared in a US court and has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
“Look at our people, many of them are becoming like zombies because of these drugs. These things have a bad effect on the human body and the brain. We have seen this in our country; this is heartbreaking.
He said instead of condemning the US and calling for an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council, SA must look at its own problems.
“Ramaphosa’s house is not in order, but he is talking too much. He is the first to condemn what the US has done, which is not wise because our house is in disarray,” he said.
Drug cartels and the Madlanga commission
Meshoe said the country is still recovering from the allegations that Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi made about senior politicians and state actors colluding with criminals and leaders of drug cartels.
“If they choose to ignore what Lieutenant General Mkhwanazi has said, and much of it has been proven true, then South Africa is in trouble.
“I do not believe that there is anybody in Cabinet who does not know the seriousness of drug trafficking in this country. There are many articles on this matter, and they are being ignored.
“If you want to see how serious drug trafficking is in this country, go to the squatter camps, go to areas that are dominated by foreign nationals, go to Hillbrow and see what is happening in the streets,” he said.
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What is parliament doing about drugs?
Meshoe said he was worried about politicians who condemned Trump without looking into the validity of his claims about Maduro.
“It will not be surprising that some people [who] are busy raising their voices to condemn the US government, and particularly Donald Trump, have friends, and they know politicians who are involved in drug trafficking.
“They know, and they do not want the magnifying glass to come closer to home; they would rather condemn, so we get distracted and do not look at what is going on in our own backyard.
“They know that we have people who are doing what President Maduro is being accused of doing in Venezuela. They are doing it here, and they are being covered,” he said.
Meshoe said government has not given enough effort to the fight against drug trafficking and the sale of drugs in communities.
“They can never stop drug trafficking in South Africa as long as the borders are porous. That is an area that needs urgent attention.
“You cannot just allow anybody to walk in just because you say South Africa is for Africans, that is wrong because it undermines the rights of the locals,” he said.
Meshoe said he believes that Trump could have been forced to act against Maduro because the US has complained about his alleged involvement in drug trafficking in the past.
“We must ask what led Trump to do this, because kidnapping a head of state is very drastic. We must ask, did the UN do anything to stop this from happening? The US has raised this matter since 1999, and Donald Trump was not even the president then,” he said.
SANDF complaints about SA borders
The warning about SA’s porous borders was also raised late last year by the Chief of the Navy, Vice-Admiral Monde Lobese.
He indicated that our sea borders allow for the easy entry of drugs and other illicit goods into the country.
“The continuous absence of our navy at sea is dangerous to our country and any maritime country, for that matter. Today, as a country, we are facing a high contingency of illegal immigrants. Our society and our kids [are] being destroyed by drugs, which gets in through the seas.”
He said the underfunding and under-resourcing of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) put South Africa at risk.
“I find myself wondering whether those responsible for making significant decisions, particularly the funding of the defence force, may be directly or indirectly influenced by these drug cartels, illegal traders, maritime criminals, and human traffickers.
“It will appear that this consistent underfunding and incapacitation of the South African Navy, and the defence force in general, is to ensure the success of the operations that undermine our nation and compromise its sovereignty and jeopardise the future of our children,” he said.
In February, another SANDF general, Ntshavheni Maphaha, slammed government for failing to invest in the adequate protection of South Africa’s land borders.
“I am appealing to the politicians and parliamentarians that next time you debate, think whether you are protected or not. The [social] grants that you are giving to the people out there, the education of your children, and everything else will not materialise if you are not protected,” he said.
