With the whoonga drug plaguing the streets and certain areas of Durban, the Urban Futures Centre (UFC) at the Durban University of Technology and the Diakonia Council of Churches, yesterday hosted a public discussion on the whoonga predicament.

Whoonga is a street drug that has seemingly come into widespread use in South Africa since 2010. The cost of the drug is reported to be worth between R14 to R20 per joint. Reports have indicated that a whoonga addict needs an average of several doses a day and users are typically too poor to afford the drug out of their legal income. Addicts therefore turn to crime to raise the money to support their drug addiction.

With this in mind, the troubling situation was addressed with various stakeholders who attended the discussion, which included the Diakonia Council of Churches, South African Police Service (SAPS), Durban Metro Police, eThekwini Councillors, eThekwini Municipality’s Senior Manager for Safer Cities Ms Nomusa Shembe, representatives from the Whoonga Park and the community at large. The discussions centred around addressing and finding solutions to the Whoonga Park concerns – and on ensuring that a proper plan is developed to handle the situation.

From 2009, the municipality and the residents of eThekwini were alerted of the drug’s presence in Albert Park, which became notorious for the number of whoonga addicts, residing at the park and adopting the name ‘Whoonga Park.’ The addicts have since been removed by the SAPS, municipality and Metro Police. This ‘removal of whoonga addicts’ took place earlier this year, as part of the city’s Qalakabusha Intervention Programme, (a programme aimed at dropping vagrancy in the city and rehabilitating the drug addicts). However, far from tackling the problem, the plan has been ridiculed and highly criticised by various stakeholders. The reason being is that the whoonga addicts were now moved to an open plot of ground at King Dinizulu /Louis Botha Park, which is across the road from DUT’s City Campus, where it is alleged that authorities are seemingly turning a blind eye to the problems arising each day.

Ben Madokwe, Chairperson of the Umbiko Community Policing Forum stressed that there has been an increase in criminal activities in the urban areas and that the area where the whoonga addicts now gather has also seen a spike in crime.

“The situation needs to be managed and tackled in a united manner. The city, police and the community need to work together in finding solutions to this problem,” he said.

Madokwe’s call for unity stems from the fact that there has been an alleged increase in housebreakings, muggings, harassment of shopkeepers and theft from motor vehicles in the surrounding area where whoonga addicts were now residing at.

However, whoonga addicts now living at the park reiterated that they were not there to make trouble, stressing that some of them were homeless, jobless and hunger was driving some to commit crimes.

“I want to change. I used to visit the park but now I live there permanently. Some of us don’t even smoke whoonga, I only started recently but I don’t like it. Most of us want to be helped since we have nowhere to go and we are unemployed and hungry. We are forced to steal to support our habit since nobody wants to help us or be associated with us,” said Mbali, a whoonga park representative.

Ethekwini municipality’s Senior Manager for Safer Cities, Ms Nomusa Shembe, said the municipality’s Qalakabusha initiative aims to eliminate vagrancy, loitering, drug abuse and create a clean better life for substance abuse victims.

“The municipality is doing its best and is working with various departments including NGO’s to help addicts start their lives over,” said Shembe.

According to Shembe, interviews were conducted with 354 addicts.

“It was found out that 80% were males and 20% were females. 24% had finished grade 12, 10% were over the age of 35, 10% under the age of 18, 54% did have identity documents, 93% wanted to go back home, 7% did not want to return home, 90% were doing drugs and 266 did seek help at the newly opened Qalakabusha Centre,” she said.

According to the metro police and SAPS, arrests are being made every day but the offenders went to court and were then released. The community did note that there has been police visibility in the areas surrounding and near the park recently.

All in all, all parties agreed to form an united front and that more public discussions of this nature were need to deal with this ongoing issue.

Things to know about Whoonga

Whoonga, also known as nyaope, is used mainly by men and women between the ages of 13 to 35 years.

When a whoonga addict is craving the drug, their stomach goes into excruciating knots making their bowel movement difficult.

Contents of whoonga are unknown but some say it is allegedly a cocktail made up of heroin, rat poison, cleaning detergents, ARVs and car lights.

Whoonga is sold in bags of white powder and gets added to marijuana and smoked as a joint.

Its side effects include loss of appetite and excessive sweating. Its users usually turn to crime to support their habits.

The drug is highly addictive.

It has severe withdrawal symptoms, which often lead to violent outbursts.

The drug is easily available and cheap (costing between R14 and R20 per joint).

Noxolo Memela