3 November 2025
Subject: Formal Condemnation of the Gauteng Provincial Government’s Mismanaged Rehabilitation Initiative and the Continued Operation of Unregistered Rehabilitation Facilities
The People Who Use Drugs (PWUD) Sub-Sector of the South African National AIDS Council (SANAC) Civil Society Forum expresses grave concern and disappointment regarding the recent incident in Gauteng, where parents and young people who use drugs responded in good faith to Premier Panyaza Lesufi’s public call on 27 October 2025 to register for rehabilitation assistance.
Instead of receiving the promised support, many were subjected to confusion, rejection, and humiliation—being told to “go home” because “the beds are full,” without any clear communication, referral pathways, or alternative assistance. This incident represents a serious lapse in planning, coordination, and accountability within the provincial government’s approach to supporting people with substance use issues.
The PWUD Sub-Sector strongly condemns both the mismanagement of this initiative and the continued operation of unregistered, unregulated, and unlawful drug use disorder rehabilitation centres across South Africa. These facilities frequently engage in practices that violate the human rights and dignity of people who use drugs, subjecting them to trauma, abuse, and stigmatization, while undermining trust between communities and legitimate public health and social services.
Such incidents constitute a violation of the constitutional rights to dignity, freedom, and access to healthcare, and run contrary to the principles of evidence-based care, treatment and harm reduction interventions as endorsed in South Africa’s National Drug Master Plan 2019 – 204. (NDMP) and South Africa’s National Strategic Plan on HIV, TB, and STIs (2023 – 2028). The events of 27 October 2025 underscore the continued failure to treat drug use as a health and human rights issue, reflecting instead a deeply entrenched moralistic and punitive approach that harms rather than helps people who use drugs.
We wish to remind the Premier, policymakers, and the public that people who use drugs are not criminals, spectacles, or political instruments. We are human beings—parents, children, and community members—who deserve dignity, compassion, and access to scientifically grounded and humane care. The trauma associated with substance dependence cannot be addressed through public displays, law enforcement, or unfulfilled promises.If the Gauteng Provincial Government is serious about addressing substance use, it must abandon punitive and performative approaches in favour of coordinated, compassionate, and evidence-based strategies developed in partnership with affected communities.
Accordingly, the PWUD Sub-Sector calls upon the Gauteng Provincial Government to:
- Urgently engage with affected families, publicly acknowledge and apologise for the harm caused by this failed initiative.
- Ensure accountability for any human rights violations through appropriate legal and disciplinary processes.
- Immediate investigate and close all unregistered and unregulated rehabilitation facilities that unlawfully detain individuals and subject them to inhumane or degrading treatment under the guise of rehabilitation
- Guarantee access to ethical and medically supervised detoxification services for individuals with substance dependence, preventing inhumane and unsafe withdrawal practices.
- Adopt and implement harm reduction approaches that recognise drug use as a health issue, not a criminal one.
- Invest in community-based interventions that provide ongoing, localised support, rather than relying on large-scale, poorly coordinated “rehabilitation drives.”
- Commit to meaningful engagement with people who use drugs in all planning, policy, and decision-making processes related to prevention, treatment, care and rehabilitation, upholding the principle of “Nothing about us without us.”
- Provide sustainable, evidence-informed support services for affected families, including counselling, social work, and harm reduction education.
- Train government officials, policymakers, and public representatives on evidence-based approaches to substance use and the principles of harm reduction.
10. Prioritise the implementation of OAT and harm reduction services in Gauteng, in accordance with the NDMP and the National Strategic Plan on HIV, TB, and STIs. These services should include needle and syringe programmes, opioid agonist therapy (OAT) and the establishment of supervised consumption spaces/services.
11. Prioritise the provision of socio-economic and environmental upliftment programmes and services to ensure that people who use drugs have equal access to housing, skills building, employment opportunities and sanitation.
12.Urge the Central Drug Authority (CDA), the Social Cluster, and the National
Department of Social Development and National Department of Health to expedite the development and implementation of national Harm Reduction Policies.
13.Integrate community-based harm reduction interventions—such as OAT, needle and syringe programmes, and overdose prevention services—into primary healthcare facilities across the country. In alignment with the Human Rights Charter and our constitutional rights, We demand respect, transparency, and genuine, evidence-based solutions—not political gestures or public spectacles.
Issued by:
The SANAC Civil Society Forum – People Who Use Drugs (PWUD) Sub-Sector
Klaas Mtshweni
National Chairperson, PWUD Sub-Sector
Reginald Kgoedi
National Deputy Chairperson