Teen drug and sex den

A VACANT and dilapidated Empangeni house has become a teen sex and drugs den,

It has also become an assembly location for criminals.

Residents have raised concerns of loitering school teens at the property on the corner of Mack Road and Hancock Stree, believed to be privately owned, as well as two adjacent empty properties belonging to the Department of Public Works.

Resident Ashraf Goori said children used the vandalised property as a bypass to the nearby bus stop after school.

‘Teenagers are seen making their way into the abandoned house and in December last year, a young girl was so high on drugs that an ambulance had to be called to remove her,’ Goori said.

Business Against Crime Manager Dave Whittaker said there were several drug hot spots in the City ‘and this was just one more place’.

‘Young girls on scooters are driving through the CDB in a desperate attempt to get hold of drugs to purchase and are being sexually harassed by dealers,’ Whittaker said.

‘When it comes to capacity, ability and means from the police force to deal with this problem, there is none.

‘Thus we are calling for the reinstatement of the South African Narcotics Bureau – a specialised unit trained to handle this rising problem.

‘If these houses belong to the Department of Public Works, why are they not being utilised?’ Whittaker asked.

Problematic

SANCA Director Shireen Sahadev said drug abuse among teens had become increasingly problematic.

‘There is a huge number of teenagers accessing treatment at SANCA,’ she said.

‘The abuse ranges from alcohol to dagga and whoonga. Dagga however,is the most common substance abused which is ultimately a stepping stone to other drugs.

‘Once the body builds a tolerance to the dagga, teen users start mixing it with whoonga and so the addiction escalates.’ Sahadev said.

Residents, meanwhile, say contacting the police is futile as many of the men in blue, so they claim, are part of the drug syndicate.

However, Empangeni SAPS spokesperson Captain Mbongeni Mdlalose said any member of the force involved in criminal activity would be treated as a felon and charged accordingly.

‘Once they are found guilty, they are removed from service. We cannot have pesticides in the organisation. We want to eradicate drugs and we need the help of the community to identify hots pots so we can make arrests,’ he said.

Ward 23 Councillor Andre de Lange said he had reported the matter to the municipality before as the property had been vacant for four years now.

‘The city has bylaws. The question is, who is responsible for law enforcement?’ Councillor De Lange said.