Drug dealer arrested after selling dagga to pupils
Police arrested an alleged drug dealer for selling dagga to school children. Community members are afraid to identify drug dealers, out of fear for their own safety.
Drug use in the west of Pretoria has become rife amongst young people, with an alleged drug dealer recently being arrested for selling drugs to school children.
According to Pretoria West police spokesperson, Constable Maria Mbiza, a 23-year-old suspect was arrested by the police for allegedly selling dagga to pupils.
“On Friday, the Pretoria West police received a tip-off about a man in Schutte Street selling dagga to pupils. The police officers acted immediately on the information and rushed to the area.”
Mbiza said that the police went to the spot where the man was allegedly selling the drugs and set a trap – using pupils to buy dagga with a marked R10 note. She said that dagga was sold to the pupils and immediately thereafter the police approached the identified suspect, searched him and found the marked note in his pocket.
“The police proceeded to the premises where the suspect lived, searched the place and only found a small amount of dagga in his bedroom,” Mbiza explained.
A case has been opened against the suspect and he is believed to have appeared in court.
Community members pointed out Lotus Gardens, Elandspoort, Pretoria West and Atteridgeville as alleged well-known drug hotspots, but they made it clear that there could be more areas that they are not aware of.
There are drug awareness groups in the areas where people can go for help, but community members do not make use of them.
“The problem is that we do not want to open up and tell the police who is selling drugs in our areas, because we are afraid the people will come after us,” a concerned community member told Rekord.
Some children at a very young age have already started using drugs like nyaope, dagga, heroin, cocaine and many other substances that damages their health, Rekord was told. “It is disturbing to community members that children have now started using drugs at school too.”
“What will become of our children when they are exposed to such things at school? Sometimes as a parent I feel like I should lock my child up so that he does not get exposed to drugs, but I cannot do that,” Pauline Chauke complained.
At some schools in the areas there are Community Policing Forum (CPF) members that search the pupils before they enter school premises to make sure that they have no drugs or weapons on them.
The Pretoria West police held an operation on Wednesday where they went to schools in their demarcated areas that were rumoured to have a problem with drugs, in an attempt to fight drug use and dealing at schools.
Captain Thomas Mufumadi, spokesperson of the Atteridgeville police station, said that they arrested people on a daily basis for smoking and selling drugs.
“We make sure that the police that are on patrol and who perform stop and search exercises arrest people that smoke or sell drugs. Through the information we gather from arrested smokers, we are able to arrest the dealers.”
The police are trying their best to curb drugs in their areas but need the community’s commitment and information to help them put the drug dealers in jail.
