Kids from "good homes" pose as street children to beg for money for drugs

01 Feb 2016 | Admin Author

Youngsters from "good homes" are posing as street children in Plettenberg Bay during weekends and school holidays to beg money for alcohol and drugs like tik.

NGO Masizame, one of the worldwide beneficiaries of golfing legend Gary Player's Player Foundation, is concerned about the numbers of youngsters drifting into town to fleece residents and visitors when they are away from school.
The NGO runs a "drop-in" centre in New Horizons, where street children are able to receive food and take part in education programmes run by the likes of LoveLife, every day from 9am to 4pm.

"The problem is that while there are children who do sleep on the streets - we attend to about 30 a day - we are seeing many who actually have parents at home and go to school," said drop-in centre manager Stone Mussa.
"All of a sudden we see a spike in 'street' children as soon as schools close. They are not really street children at all, and they target people in affluent areas like Main Beach and Main Street."

Masizame manager Brenda Wall said the nature of children had changed in recent times.

"Kids can sell you on anything now. Some of these kids come from good homes and are very clever but you will see them begging outside Woolworths, and then bragging to their friends that they managed to con people out of money," she said.
"Then they buy drugs and eventually drop out of school because they become addicted.
The "saddest part" was that with their ingenuity these children could go on to make tremendous salesmen one day, she said.

Bitou councillor Elaine Paulse, who works in New Horizons and Kwanokuthule, confirmed that children from these areas, in spite of having everything they needed at home, were begging for money for drugs.
"I have encountered kids as young as 11 doing it. I work at a number of soup kitchens but they hang around asking for money even though there is food available a home. Then when they don't get money they go into town and beg in the wealthier areas," she said.

"The use of tik, especially, has increased in Plett recently, and we have seen more and more kids dropping out of school."
Exacerbating the problem is that even though there may be money at home, these children's parents engage in drug and alcohol abuse themselves.
"So the kids see this and do the same thing. It's a big problem in our areas."
The money-for-drugs scam is one of the main reasons Masizame has appealed to residents and visitors to "think before they give".
Player began his involvement in the organisation a few years ago, as he spends many of his holidays in Plettenberg Bay at Goose Valley.

He was introduced to the organisation by Coca-Cola, and through his annual Gary Player Invitational tournaments, the NGO receives much-needed funding
This year's Gary Player Invitational takes place at Wentworth in England on July 22.

John Harvey