Crime desk hosts seminar for young men
HILLBROW - Hillbrow Cluster Youth Crime Prevention Desk educate boys on drug abuse.
THE Hillbrow Cluster Youth Crime Prevention Desk hosted young men seminar at the Hillbrow Police Station hall.
Since July is men health month, the cluster which is comprised of several police stations including the Linden Police Station, decided to bring together boys from different high schools to educate them on drug abuse.
The Linden police accompanied the Delta Park and Blairgowrie Primary Schools’ pupils to the seminar.
The cluster’s chairperson Sizwe Mazibuko said the seminar aimed at channeling boys to the right direction while they were still young. “There is a lot of peer pressure and drug use in schools, if you want to end up in prison with no future or to die young, then you will be stupid enough to use drugs and alcohol. We cannot change how you think because change comes from within, this is only my precious advice to you,” added Mazibuko addressing the young men.
Veli Mahlakwane, cluster’s co-ordinator who works with juvenile prisoners told the boys about population increase of young men in South African prisons. He said the boys in the juvenile cells started by doing drugs and got involved in bigger crimes to support their habits.
Jerome Scheffers, a 28-year-old ex-drug addict, told the boys that at 16-years-old in grade 10 a high school friend introduced him to cocaine. He started stealing money from his family to support his habit. Everyone lost their trust in him and his academic grades started to drop. When he failed grade 10 he dropped out, started working, stole from the company he was working for and lost his job due to drugs. “Today I have nothing, I encourage you to stay in school and to avoid bad peers.”
According to Gavin Seloma a 15-year-old Grade 9 boy from Delta Park School, he has learnt that using drugs and alcohol is bad it influences one’s lifestyle. One can lose trust from everyone when they start using drugs, one thinks it’s cool because all their peers are doing it but you are actually killing yourself. “I will stay positive and stay away from bad peers.”
