MZWANDILE Makhabo has buried six of his friends who died from nyaope and now he is scared he might follow.
He told Daily Sun that he would do anything to be rehabilitated from the deadly drug.
The 36-year-old from Soshanguve in Tshwane, said he has been smoking nyaope for 20 years. He told Daily Sun that the addiction started when he was still at high school after being introduced to the drug by a friend.
“I didn’t think I would ever get addicted to this drug but because I wanted to belong, I smoked it with friends,” he said.
He said he lost his parents when he was young, so he wanted to be loved by people so much that he would end up doing things he didn’t want to do.
“I’ve always wanted to fill that gap of not having parents and loved ones,” he said.
Mzwandile said he wants to start living a normal life like other people.
“Every day I wake up and come here to guard cars so that I can have money for a fix and to also buy myself some food,” he said.
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He said that it pains him seeing people he went to school with driving nice cars and having families.
“I get so depressed when I see people my age being very far in life. To think that if I hadn’t decided to smoke this monster, I would’ve also had a great life,” he said.
He said that he is pleading with SunReaders to help him go to rehab.
“I would do anything to get help. I am tired of living like this. If it was just easy to wake up and stop smoking automatically I would, but it is hard when you are an addict,” he said.
He said that he would like to complete his matric.
“I would be happy to go back to school and finish my matric. I wasn’t a dumb learner. I was actually doing well, and I would love to start there,” he said.
His friend, Godfrey Masemola (37), said that he would be happy to see his friend going to rehab.
“I also want to go there but it is hard because as much as we want to change, we are already used to this life and when you come back and people treat you badly, you end up relapsing,” he said.
