The DA wants to decriminalise hard drug use, arguing that addicts are not criminals but people in need of help who should be able to seek assistance without fear of prosecution.
The official opposition party, citing policy in such countries as Portugal, says addicts should be treated as medical patients and provided with clean needles and shelters as part of rehabilitation programmes.
This proposal is one of several in the DA’s latest policy document on crime prevention and criminal justice. Others include disbanding the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (the Hawks) and replacing it with a unit modelled on the old Scorpions.
The new anti-crime unit should be independent of the National Prosecuting Authority and the police minister and should report directly to parliament, the party says.
It would be set up as a chapter 9 institution that could only be dissolved by a two-thirds majority vote in the National Assembly — a stipulation the DA believes is necessary to prevent a repeat of the way the ANC scrapped the original Scorpions 15 years ago.
Other proposals include cutting the number of politicians on the Judicial Service Commission, which is responsible inter alia for appointing judges. As the JSC is currently constituted, 11 MPs serve on it.
The DA proposal says that politicians add little value to the workings of the JSC and should be replaced with experienced legal minds.
The new proposals will form part of the DA’s election manifesto, which is expected to be launched this week, and would be implemented if the party and its allies win enough votes next year to form a coalition government.
Ultimately people who are addicted to substances are people who have a sickness, and it needs to be treated as such
— Mathew Cuthbert, DA
“What we are saying is that we want to explore the potential decriminalisation of drug use,” said DA policy chief Mathew Cuthbert.
“Countries such as Portugal have tried this, where they give drug abusers needles, facilities to be able to carry out their habits in a clean and safe environment, because invariably people are going to engage in this kind of behaviour whether it is decriminalised or not.
“And ultimately people who are addicted to substances are people who have a sickness, and it needs to be treated as such.”
As is already the case with marijuana, a limit would be set on the amount of a drug a person can legally have without being arrested as a dealer.
“It’s decriminalising drug-use but not decriminalising drugs,” Cuthbert said. “The exact measurements would have to be determined in a law … It will have to be rationally determined what kind of amount would constitute dealing of drugs.”
Cuthbert said South Africa had a serious drug abuse problem which required creative solutions. The current approach of arresting all users not only put pressure on police — who should be focusing on disrupting cartels and busting the kingpins — but it deterred addicts from seeking help.
“The drug dealers and those trading in these illicit substance are the real criminals here; they are stealing the lives of our youth,” Cuthbert said.
“When people come into a centre like in Portugal — and we need to test it for our own context — you have to educate those people on the risks of taking drugs, on the impact that it has on their families and the breakdown of families. You need a point of contact where you can actually facilitate this kind of rehabilitation.”
The DA says an essential part of reducing crime is to create jobs so people can make an honest living. It says it can cut the unemployment rate to below 20% by improving the business environment and stabilising government finances.
The party says it would make sure technology was at the forefront of policing and would promote deployment of bodycams and CCTV and the use of artificial intelligence and data analytics in law enforcement.
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