For the past year, Merriam Piliso has spent nearly R20 000 to keep her youngest daughter, Norah (24), in a drug rehabilitation facility on the outskirts of Seshego, in Polokwane.  

Piliso, a food vendor, says the money she earns selling food, supplemented by the child support grants (R580 per child) she receives for her grandchildren, barely covers the family’s basic needs.

But she’s determined to see her daughter recover from years of addiction. 

Living in denial

It had never occurred to Piliso that her child was using drugs. In 2015, when her neighbours told her that Norah, then only 13-years-old, was smoking dagga and nyaope, she didn’t believe them.

Piliso thought her daughter could not afford drugs because their family was poor. 

But neighbours insisted that Norah’s friends had already started sniffing glue and benzene, and taking other illegal substances like nyaope and crystal meth, a highly addictive central nervous system stimulant. 

In 2016, an angry mob stormed their home looking for Norah, accusing her of being involved in a string of housebreakings. But Piliso insisted that her daughter was innocent. 

When items like her sisters’ phones, and even cutlery disappeared, Piliso still didn’t suspect Norah. 

The warning lights only went on in 2017 when Norah, who was in Grade 10 at the time, started collecting scrap metal to sell to the nearby scrap yard. 

“I was worried about my daughter’s sudden determination to collect empty beer cans, iron metals, and electric cables,” Piliso tells Health-e News. “Garden tools and a wheelbarrow also disappeared.”

The single mother finally had to accept her daughter was using drugs.

“I was insulted all over the neighbourhood and also accused of harbouring a criminal and raising a drug user. The pain was so deep, I was always depressed and started relying on sleeping pills,” Pilisor recalls. 

“My daughter denied everything. I wanted to believe her, but her performance at school dropped significantly.” 

In 2018, at the age of 16, Norah fell pregnant and dropped out of school. 

“All the allegations I’ve been hearing about my daughter were now confirmed,” her mother says. “She was always high on nyaope, crystal meth and drunk. She would spend weeks away from home.”

Finally getting help

A year ago, Piliso and her two other daughters managed to gather R3 500 for Norah’s registration fees at the centre. Norah had refused her family’s pleas to go willingly. Instead, three men from the facility arrived and took her there against her will.

“She was kicking and screaming,” Piliso recalls. 

Despite the rehab centre being among the cheapest in the area, the family is struggling to keep up with the costs. 

“The money I get from selling fast food in town does not cover household expenses, so I chose the cheapest centre. I paid the R3 500 registration fee and still have to pay R1 500 monthly. On top of that, I still have to buy her extra groceries and other basic needs,” she says.

“I’m thinking of pulling her out even though I’m not convinced that she’s fully rehabilitated.”

Illegal rehab centres mushrooming

The Limpopo Department of Social Development warns that the province has seen “the sudden mushrooming of illegal rehab centres”. 

Spokesperson Joshua Kwapa tells Health-e News that most of these centres don’t meet minimal standards. 

“They don’t have the required medicines, social workers, security measures, and skills development programmes. That’s why we had to close some of these centres,” says Kwapa.

“We urge families to first verify with the department to ascertain if the centre is registered and compliant before they can register their loved ones.”

Piliso says it had never occurred to her to check whether the centre was registered. 

State-funded care

Piliso’s options to help her daughter seem limited. Limpopo has only one state rehabilitation centre: the Seshego Treatment Centre. 

The facility can accommodate 18 female and 36 male patients. There are currently eight people on the waiting list. 

 “This number does not mean that the province has only eight people seeking help, but only those who have submitted their applications. They are currently on the waiting list and are undergoing the admission process,” he says.

Piliso says she was not aware of the facility and will start the application process to get Norah admitted. – Health-e News