Everson Luhanga
Philip and his friends gather under a tree to feed their habit. Together, they smoke nyaope – a mix of zol, a sharp cigarette and white powder rolled into a joint.
Most addicts smoke nyaope, but others mix it with water and inject it directly into the bloodstream. (on the video).
The drug is dangerous, both physically and mentally. It has wrecked many families. Many young people, barely alive, have given up on life.
And Philip is one of the many young South Africans who have smoked their lives away.
Philip Raphiri from Alexandra, Johannesburg got into drugs at the age of 11, and it has been a 24-year journey of pain, torture and hopelessness.
Now aged 35, his home is broken and he sleeps in the bushes. He has no future plans. (See part 2)
Philip is pleading for help to quit drugs.
He said being a drug user for the past 24 years has been worse than being sentenced to life imprisonment.
His fingers black and dry, the skin cracked, he speaks in a deep voice, laced with drugs and regrets.
The only crime he committed, he says, was being poor and unable to afford the life that got him into drugs.
The visibly tired and weak Philip had this story to tell
“I am the firstborn with three siblings who looked up to me to put food on the table. My mother has always been unemployed. She was asking me for money before I was 10,” he said.
He dropped out of school because there was no money to support his academic life. There was no money.
“I am uneducated. I have never worked. But still, I had the pressure to feed my family,” he said.
“I dropped out of school in Grade six because of the pressure to find money and food to take home.”
Philip slipped into pity crime.
“I had to phanda (hustle) for me and my family,” he said
“I started hanging around street corners and robbed people of their cell phones and other belongings. I started finding money. It was nice. It seemed right.”
But while spending time with his friends, thinking about their next victim, he started smoking drugs.
“The first smoke was followed by another and then by a joint. The habit grew. Now I’m at the point where I am trapped. I’m controlled by my cravings to keep smoking.”
He said he has taken different kinds of drugs, including dagga, tik, cocaine and ecstasy.
“But with no money for expensive drugs, I have stayed with nyaope. It is cheap and always available. By the time I turned 12, I was already an addict,” he said.
Then he reached a stage where it was only about him and his cravings.
“I forgot about helping my family. I abandoned everyone so that they also had to phanda for their food and to stay alive,” he said.
“I used all the money I got to buy drugs.”
He left home and started sleeping under trees, bridges and other dangerous places.
“Come rain, sunshine or freezing cold, I am out there with my dirty and smelly blankets. I don’t remember the last time I had a bath,” he said.
“It has been the life that I didn’t want to live but it happened that way. Poverty forced me into the cold streets of Johannesburg,” he said.
