GenZ Updates

By Nyandano Tshikororo

11/14/2024

Pretoria has been know as the hot spot of nyaope as it was first introduced in Pretoria when i got to South Africa.

The use of substance is becoming a major problem in most of our communities, nyaope or woonga which is widely know as a street drug which contains a main ingredient called heroin. Nyaope I commonly used and found in South Africa. It is mainly used by young people and poor people as they say. Nyaope’s price starts raging rom R40 per banky/small pack depending on the amount of the portion. According to our research, 80% of foreigner in South Africa are the ones who are selling and supplying nyaope/woonga to the streets of Pretoria, the police who are receiving bribe to from the suppliers to make easier for them to supply woonga/nyaope making it easy for nyaope to be accessible by anyone.

The 20% of South Africans who sells nyaope are supplied by foreigners. This street drug is causing a damage to the futures of South African youth and ruining their lives. I led myself to the home of a nyaope dealer in Sunnyside, Pretoria where I got the address from one of the buyers in the street, as I have told them that I wanted something strong. As was waiting for the dealer two boys and two girls wearing a school uniform, just random people sitting by the gate smoking nyaope, the two boys in a school uniform were holding small parcels of nyaope and kept it inside their pockets.

Nyaope is made from a cocktail of ingredients such as rat poison, heroin and antiretrovirals and it is, still destroying the future of a lot of young people in the area. It’s not for many parents raising teenagers in this area as they pray for their kids not to fall for the temptation.

This street drug is a pure white powder that takes on a creamy tint sometimes and it is usually sold in small parcels form price of R40 a portion. People always say it all began in Pretoria, with Nigerians who were responsible for the supply. When the drug users want to consume this type of drug, they first start by a paper called rizla, as nyaope is too strong or hard to smoke it in a powder form. They then dagga on top of the powder and roll the combination in a paper and light it up.

The amount of dagga will be measured according to how strong the user would want it to be. From what the schoolboys I bumped to at the dealer’s house have said, nyaope does not make one feel hungry as in to eat a full meal, it just makes one crave for snacks, and once you start smoking woonga there is no going back. Nyaope is addictive. One can see addicts going an extra mile to finance their habits. From hijacking civilians walking in the streets to stealing electric cables, water taps, gates, cooper, and aluminium. What ever it is that they touch, they steal. Some of the walk around picking scraps in the street to exchange for cash in the scrap yards. And they must have a heavy weight of goods to receive a good amount of money.

“Nyaope is really ripping apart our townships and suburbs causing more distraction in our community, affecting the nyaope smokers by destroying their school, work and family life”, said Dakalo Gundula during our podcast regarding the issues of nyaope and how it is easily accessible in the streets.

From 2013 the Police statistics to today has risen from 60% to 80% of crimes in South Africa are related to substance abuse and nyaope users have created portion of woonga. Now woonga is classified as an illegal substance by the Department of Justice, so when a person is being charged, charges will rely on both dagga and heroin.

Some children work for drug dealers to get money so that they can also but the “stuff”. Some do want to stop smoking or consuming this drug by they don’t have knowledge on how they are going to get help, and how easy the drug is everywhere and accessible and the more it is easily accessible to them, the more the consume it in their blood and get hard for them to smoking this drug, because nyaope is more addictive than other drugs.

“My sister this heroin thing is not good even though I use it every day, it’s not because I want to smoke it every now and then. I just don’t have a choice”, says a street man who also uses nyaope. “So even when you don’t have cash to buy, the dealer would ask you to do something to get a free parcel of nyaope. That’s how easy it is accessible in the streets.