By Staff Writer.

• South Africa continues to face a growing public health and development crisis driven by the harmful use of both legal and illicit substances and drug trafficking, the deputy minister of social development, Ganief Hendricks, told the Central Drug Authority’s 2025 Summit.
• The deputy minister officially opened the fourth biennial summit that is being held to find solutions to the social ills, such as gender-based violence heightened by substance misuse.
• The summit will create a platform to share information, expertise, and promote a collaborative approach to dealing with the challenges arising from substance misuse.

The Central Drug Authority’s (CDA) fourth biennial summit is focused on finding solutions to the social ills, such as gender-based violence heightened by substance misuse.

Officially opening the summit, the deputy minister of social development, Ganief Hendricks, noted that the summit came on the heels of the recent G20 Leaders’ Summit, where about 42 countries and institutions attended the meeting.

President Cyril Ramaphosa, under whose presidency the G20 was held this year, has heightened the fight against gender-based violence and femicide, saying the scourge needs to be eradicated to ensure that nations thrive, the deputy minister noted.

“We all know that the use of substances, especially alcohol, leads to various social ills, including gender-based violence and femicide.”

The president’s highlighting of this is an indication of the need to collaborate and fight against these challenges, Hendricks said, adding: “I hope that this summit will look at the recommendations and how best the country can collaborate to address these challenges.”

An event like the 2025 CDA Summit should be prioritised, given the fact that drugs and drug misuse remain a national concern requiring greater collaboration among key sectors of our society at all levels.

“Moreover, South Africa continues to face a growing public health and development crisis driven by the harmful use of both licit and illicit substances and drug trafficking. The consequences of such are devastating for public health, safety, social cohesion, and economic development.”

Challenges of gender-based violence and substance abuse

In recognising the twin challenges of gender-based violence and femicide and substance abuse, President Ramaphosa, in May 2025, appointed an Inter-Ministerial Committee to tackle the issues. The committee is co-chaired by the ministers of women, youth and persons with disabilities women and of social development.

The responsibility of the minister for social development is to support the implementation of the National Drug Master Plan.

The CDA, as the country’s advisory body on substance use and abuse-related matters, is mandated to ensure implementation of the national plan. The National Drug Master Plan is South Africa’s blueprint to provide strategic direction to the country’s efforts to deal with the use and abuse of substances.

“The CDA Annual Report for 2023/2024 indicated that South Africa already has a growing new psychoactive substances market, particularly synthetic cannabinoids and cathinones – so-called ‘bath salts’.

“On the control side, South Africa is using the Medicines and Related Substances Act schedules and some Drugs Act schedules to catch new synthetics.”

Deputy Minister Hendricks noted that the latest South African Health Products Regulatory Authority Report for 1 August 2025 raised several issues, including:
•⁠ ⁠fentanyl analogues as a group showed a move to generic control of synthetic opioids;
•⁠ ⁠the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992 is still built around older markets and has been criticised as a ‘one size fits all’ punishment regime with heavy penalties and limited proportionality; and
•⁠ ⁠The government’s own Operation Vulindlela work recognises the need to modernise the drug framework, at least for cannabis – removing cannabis from the Drugs Act and shifting to other regulatory tools.

International efforts

The work done in 2025 by the Commission on Narcotic Drugs, the International Narcotics Control Board, and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime showed consistency, with the international board and the UN warning that synthetic drugs are “rapidly reshaping illicit markets” and fuelling overdose crises, especially through cheap synthetic opioids and methamphetamine.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime World Drug Report 2025 highlights that the synthetic drug market (synthetic drugs chemically related to amphetamine, synthetic opioids, and new psychoactive substances) has expanded sharply, with record seizures of amphetamine-type stimulants and growing nitazene detections.

All of this is set within the implementation of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Synthetic Drug Strategy 2021–2025 Report.

“This summit, therefore, will create a platform to share information, expertise, and promote a collaborative approach amongst government departments and other key stakeholders, national and international, involved in dealing with the challenge of substance use and misuse,” Hendricks said.

“This summit should further allow exchange of good practice, evidence-based interventions, challenges, and sustainable socio-economic strategies aimed at reducing the supply, demand, and harm caused by the use, misuse, and abuse of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs.”

Breaking the cycle

The CDA Summit’s theme, ‘Breaking the cycle: Confronting harmful substance use and drug trafficking to safeguard lives, communities and national development’, looks to reach several outcomes, including:
•⁠ ⁠Increased visibility and policy attention to legal substances;
•⁠ ⁠The adoption of summit resolutions and a national communiqué outlining key commitments;
•⁠ ⁠Strengthened understanding of the interlinkages between drugs, crime, poverty, and violence;
•⁠ ⁠Renewed stakeholder commitments across public and private sectors;
•⁠ ⁠A renewed commitment to collaborative implementation of the National Drug Master Plan across departments and sectors;
•⁠ ⁠The establishment or reinforcement of multi-stakeholder task teams; and
•⁠ ⁠The development of a follow-up and monitoring plan in line with the National Drug Master Plan.

Under the sub-theme ‘From policy to practice: Whole of society approaches to strengthening public health, justice and socio-economic resilience and inclusion through integrated responses’, the summit will focus on:
•⁠ ⁠Providing progress on the review of the National Drug Master Plan 2019 to 2024;
•⁠ ⁠Elevate national awareness of the harms caused by legal substances, such as alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis;
•⁠ ⁠Strengthen integrated responses to illicit drug trafficking, organised crime, and community-level violence;
•⁠ ⁠Foreground economic development, employment, and youth opportunities as core elements of universal, indicated and selective prevention;
•⁠ ⁠Enhance departmental coordination and delivery mechanisms at local, provincial, and national levels and promote collaborative action across departments, in civil society, traditional leadership, and business, and provide a national platform for multi-sector dialogue and coordination on harmful substance use and drug trafficking;
•⁠ ⁠Promote data-driven, community-led, and culturally appropriate solutions; and
•⁠ ⁠Acknowledge and integrate cross-cutting issues, including gender-based violence and femicide, mental health, HIV, human trafficking, and youth exclusion, as intersecting concerns in substance use and drug trafficking responses.

The fact that a range of organisations and partners are attending the summit – national departments, provincial authorities, local government, UN agencies, business sector, civil society, traditional leaders, researchers, youth, people who use drugs, and survivors, community-based organisations, faith-based organisations, non-governmental organisations, and academic and international partners – indicates the commitment to collaborate and ensure that no one is left behind, the deputy minister said.

Making an impact

“We all have a role to play in ensuring that all people are and feel safe in South Africa as envisioned in the National Development Plan (Vision 2030). We must do this together to protect the most vulnerable in our society.”

The nation will benefit from the summit by the reduction of the supply of illicit drugs in communities and helping people who experience substance use disorders and their families.

It will also contribute to the reduction of the prevalence of HIV and hepatitis infections caused by the sharing of contaminated paraphernalia by people who inject drugs.

“The summit also comes at an emotional time for young people who are finishing their exams. During this time, learners get involved with underage drinking, drug use, which is a celebration that can potentially tragedies.”

The Ministry of Social Development encourages learners not to partake in such events, as underage drinking is illegal and against the National Liquor Act of 2003. Parents and teachers are cautioned to take extra steps to ensure that the young adults do not engage in “pens down” celebrations.

The deputy minister thanked all those present and those involved with the organisation of the summit. “We are honoured to have with us the Cabinet Ministers, including the members of the Portfolio Committee on Social Development.

“We thank you for your continued leadership and your commitment, as demonstrated through your support and national efforts made by your respective departments in addressing the scourge of substance abuse and illicit trafficking in the country,” he said.

He also acknowledged the presence of the National Authority for the Campaign Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse.

“I envisage that this summit will provide an opportunity to discuss sustainable, coordinated, and impactful strategies for the reduction of drug and substance use and misuse in South Africa,” Deputy Minister Hendricks said.