DAGGA FOUND IN CLASSROOM

Luderitz

An attentive cleaner recently stumbled on a small parcel of cannabis
that was neatly wrapped in brown paper in one of the Grade 7
classrooms at a primary school in Luderitz.

The cleaner, who was performing her daily chores, found the illicit
substance under a chair, after which she alerted her seniors. The
substance, that can be smoked, chewed or made into a tea, was
discovered in a classroom at Nautilus Primary School. Jakes van Rooy,
the principal at Nautilus Primary, suspects a learner must have hidden
the dagga under the chair. "Someone must have put it there and
definitely a child. A child was using it," he told New Era.

Truancy is apparently very high at the school and the principal
suspects the absenteeism could be a result of the drug use by some of
the learners. "What worries me is learners are constantly absent and I
don't get confirmation from parents. Those absent are mostly learners
from a specific grade," he said. A concerned citizen, Susan Harris,
told New Era that some parents came to her to express their concern
about the prevalent use of drugs, of even those categorised as "hard
drugs", among the youth at Luderitz.

"Its not anymore cannabis and mandrax like we used to know in the
past. Now it is hard drugs such as cocaine and heroine," she said.
"Parents are shocked about what is happening in Luderitz and want to
come together to form an organisation to fight this evil in our
society," she said.

"My big concern is Vision 2030. If this generation has started to
destroy their lives and they are the ones to see that Vision 2030 is
realised, are they going to be there," she queried. Recently two
suspects belonging to a group called the Chinese Mafia in Windhoek, Yu
Chin, were denied bail by the court for being in possession of heroine
with a street value of N$100 000. Yu Chin and other two Chinese
nationals, 22-year-old Cui Cui of China Town in the Northern
Industria, and 25-year-old Zhang Fuwang of Johann Albrecht Street,
were arrested following a police hunt.

Last week the South African elite police organisation, the Scorpions,
seized mandrax powder worth about N$750 million in Durban, concealed
in cans of paint in shipping containers. According to a newspaper
report, the containers were registered to transport about 1 500 paint
powder cans from China to Mozambique of which more than a quarter were
filled with mandrax powder.

According to documentation seized, Namibia was supposed to be the
final destination after Pemba in Mozambique.