An eight-year-old boy from Elsies River was found high on cocaine, raising alarm about the spread of the drug among children on the Cape Flats.
Leonsdale ward councillor Franchesca Walker says community workers who tried to assist the boy were left dumbfounded when he tested positive for four types of drugs, including cocaine.
While coke has been a popular drug in higher-income communities, arrests in Mitchells Plain and Langa have shown a cheaper variant is being sold.
Walker says she became aware of the situation when the boy’s worried ouma approached her for help after the child went missing last week.
She explains: “I searched and searched but could not find him. Later in the day, while working in a different part of Leonsdale, the community workers spotted him and I tried to speak to him when I realised something was wrong.
The child was taken to Tehillah Centre where he underwent a drug test and tested positive and social workers were notified.
Sister Magda Kleyn, CEO of the centre, says: “He tested positive for mandrax, tik, heroin and cocaine and we were very, very shocked.
“We looked further into this and found that the teachers at local schools and parents are at their wits’ end with the drug use among children in Leonsdale, but the cocaine is becoming a very big concern.
“We found out that the children are able to buy cocaine for just R50, and they even buy just one line to sniff for R20 if they don’t have R50.”
In May, the Metro Police K9 Unit arrested three men in Parow for possession of cocaine after stopping them for speeding.
At the time, Mayco member for safety and security, JP Smith, said they found tik, dagga and cocaine hidden in a compartment of the vehicle.
Less than a week later, the SAPS Anti-Economic and Extortion Task Team investigated a house in Uitenhage Street in Portlands, where they found cocaine with an estimated street value of over R50 000.
Last week, the same police unit pounced on an alleged dealer in Langa after being informed that drugs were being stored at a home in Masakani Street.
Police spokesperson Sergeant Wesley Twiggs said cops confiscated a consignment of drugs consisting of cocaine, mandrax and crystal meth.
Abie Isaacs of the Cape Flats Safety Forum says cheap cocaine has flooded the Cape Flats: “We worry about what is being used to water it down to make it so cheap.”