NAME ASTONS -
Shambalane Ndlovu, nyaope addict
Joyce Ndlovu (mother)
Pauline, addict
DR Oscar Makubhele, Soweto Doctor (private)
Aaron Motsoaledi, South African health Minister
Script
It’s a terrifying drug cocktail that’s hooked South Africa’s youth …They call it Nyaope. It’s like crack, with a sickening twist.
A key ingredient: the ante retroviral drugs designed to fight AIDS..
SOT
Shambalane Ndlovu
(explains why he is taking drug...)
Addicts across South Africa are crushing up and devouring these life-saving drugs just to get their fix: destroying other lives as well their own.
SOT
Shambalane Ndlovu
(explains why he is taking drug...)
Shambalane Ndlovu is 23 years old….
He lives in the township of Tembisa - just outside Johannesburg.
he's never worked and he is full of the addicts' bravado…
SOT
Shambalane Ndlovu
(explains that it addictive and leads to many problems...
We drove back to the house where he has been living with his mother Joyce. He was far less cocksure in her presence…
SOT JOYCE Ndlovu
talking about her son
The nyaope addicts hang out by the gates of an outdoor market on the edge of Tembisa
.
Inside the market stall cages, in fill public view, they crush up the drug and smoke it, several times a day…
it’s an volatile concoction. The anti aids medicine can give an hallucengenic high. The Nyope mix can also include rat poison, third grade heroin and cleaning detergents like VIM. All this is aced together with marijuana.
sync - i/v with emmmanuel " i just smoke it..."
It takes a matter of minutes before they get high
It’s believed there are tens of thousands of addicts now right across south africa
In the next door township Ivory Park... the nyaope epidemic is spreading fast.
in this hovel I find Pauline . She’s 's 27 and is another regular user.... She used to work as a cashier in a supermarket. Now these days she spends hour upon hour smoking nyaope with her friends...
Paulina SYNC
This thing is destroying me from inside... nothing they can do
DR Oscar Makubhele
SOT
"there is no hope for these kids, Not at all...."
Dr Oscar Makhublele knows full well just how devastasting the effects of nyaope can be. He told me his own cousin is hooked and recently his surgery was raided by armed robbers.
They came to steal the ante retroviral drugs that were intended for his HIV postive patients…
Other clinics in Soweto have also been targeted.. Medical staff are being investigated.
-------------
SOT
Dr Oscar Mukhubele
Says nurses suspended
I went to see SOuth Africa's Health Minister....etc
SOT
Aaron Motsoaledi..
SA Health Minister
"its not about shortage of drugs....depots are places of theft...
SYNC GP
COMMENTARY
---
A drug that’s meant to save lives is now destroying them. For the families tough love may not be enough. They’re calling for the state to step in –because they need all the help they can get to stop this scourge called nyaoope and rehabilitate these addicts --