The use of tik is taking its toll on the city's health care system, with at least one major hospital treating up to eight times the number of psychiatric patients it can accommodate in one day.

On one morning last week, the GF Jooste Hospital in Manenberg, which has a capacity to observe three psychiatric patients at a time, had 24 people in for observation.

Now doctors have called for more psychiatric beds to treat psychotic tik abusers.

And the provincial health department is exploring a proposal for 30 extra mental health beds within the city metro.

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Cape Town mayor Helen Zille says that she has more "worrying" information about "past police action" to back up her claim that agents provocateurs are trying to infiltrate the anti-drug organisation Padlac (People Against Drugs and Liquor Action Committee).

Zille said on Monday that a legal team was investigating the information she had received from sources in the intelligence services, which was now backed up by additional information.

She was responding to Western Cape premier Ebrahim Rasool's request to the Inspector-General of Intelligence to investigate Zille's claims.

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Western Cape premier Ebrahim Rasool has asked the Inspector General of Intelligence to investigate an allegation by Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille that senior intelligence sources had told her of a plan to infiltrate Padlac with agents provocateurs who would distribute guns "to discredit her" and the anti-drug campaign.

"These are extremely serious allegations and should be dealt with as seriously," Rasool said last night.

And, in a move Zille regards as "absolute rubbish and outrageous", he has also ordered a probe into whether she used public money from the city to support any of her activities with Padlac (People Against Drugs and Liquor Action Committee) in Mitchells Pain.

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Cape Town Mayor Helen Zille says she has information that agent provocateurs were planning to infiltrate the anti-drug group Padlac and stir up violence.

She said this was part of a smear campaign to discredit her and Padlac (People's Anti-Drug and Liquor Action Committee).

In response to Community Safety MEC Leonard Ramatlakane's claim that Padlac was connected to vigilante attacks in Mitchells Plain, Zille said on Thursday senior intelligence sources had informed her that ANC members orchestrated the smear campaign.

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A mob of masked anti-drug vigilantes, armed with pangas and steel pipes, assaulted at least two people during a march through Mitchells Plain on Sunday.

Antonio Anthony, 31, and Wayne Cyster, 27, were attacked near their homes in Tafelsig in the early hours of Sunday morning by members of a crowd dozens strong.

They claim they had been attacked "out of the blue".

Tafelsig neighbourhood watch head Moosa Daniels said he had seen the mob, some on foot and others with cars, go from Eastridge into Beacon Valley and Tafelsig on Sunday.

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Anti-drug organisations, police and private investigators have slammed the "abysmal" suspended sentence handed down by a Midrand magistrate to a Nigerian narcotics manufacturer.

Adam Chifulo, also known as Kenneth Ozomadu, was given a six-year sentence, suspended for five years, after pleading guilty before magistrate Tefo Myambo to manufacturing crystal meth.

Crystal meth, commonly known as "tik", has been described by law enforcement officials and drug fighters as South Africa's new drug scourge.

The maximum sentence that can be given for manufacturing and dealing in drugs is 25 years in jail.

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Helen Zille, the white mayor of Cape Town trying to make the opposition relevant in the new South Africa, will take her campaign to root out drug dealers back to the streets today, a week after she was arrested over her participation in another protest.

Zille's Democratic Alliance says today's march in the poor community of Atlantis, outside Cape Town, has police permission but under the same tight conditions that she and a dozen other activists were accused of breaching last weekend in the crime-ridden township of Mitchells Plain. She will appear in court on 26 October.

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The leader of South Africa's opposition Democratic Alliance, Helen Zille, appeared in court briefly on Tuesday alongside 10 others arrested in an anti-drug march in Cape Town at the weekend.

Zille, also mayor of Cape Town, appeared in the Mitchells Plain magistrate's court on a charge of contravening the Gatherings Act following her arrest on Sunday.

The case was postponed to October 26 for further investigation.

Zille's lawyer, Frank Raymond, complained to the magistrate that the charges made no sense as the march had been a peaceful and legal one for which permission had been obtained from the authorities.

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Defiant Cape Town Mayor Helen Zille vowed on Tuesday to continue to lead a street battle against suspected drug dealers in the city, with Atlantis her next target this Sunday.

Zille planned to enter the Mitchells Plain magistrate's court on Tuesday morning declaring her innocence on a charge that she staged an illegal gathering outside the Mitchell's Plain police station on Sunday.

Meanwhile, national ANC heavyweights were at odds with their provincial officials over her arrest.

In Pretoria on Monday, ANC secretary-general Kgalema Motlanthe said Zille's arrest had been "unfortunate" and that she should have been treated with respect and dignity to protect the image of South Africa.

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CAPE TOWN - The education department would have to take care that it did not violate the constitution and infringe on children's rights in its attempt to clamp down on violent and drug-addictive school behaviour, the South African Human Rights Commission cautioned yesterday.

The department has tabled controversial amendments to the Education Laws Act which have drawn opposition from school governing bodies, parents and unions.

As well as proposing measures to randomly search pupils for weapons and test pupils for drug use, the bill proposes to introduce a set of uniform norms and standards for all schools throughout the country with regard to basic infrastructure.

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After discovering that their children's school was ridden with gangsterism, violence, drugs and prostitution, shell-shocked parents regained their composure and are fighting back to reclaim their authority.

Parents of pupils attending Liverpool Secondary School in Actonville, Benoni, have mobilised and are getting to grips with the issues by assisting the principal and teachers to restore discipline and order.

Getting involved and having criminal elements and drug pushers arrested and brought to justice is one way of rooting out undesirable behaviour, but cutting the purse strings and the pocket-money if children don't respect their parents is also effective.

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Mitchell's Plain police made a mistake arresting DA leader Helen Zille. Those who imagine theres's a Zimbabwe-style political motive are wrong.

Even ANC secretary-general Kgalema Motlanthe says police could have acted with restraint against her. So we don't think any order came from on high, as happens in Zim where opponents are routinely detained by Robert Mugabe's jackboots.

Zille was arrested along with 15 other anti-drug protesters when she went to the police station to find out why march leader Moulana Maker had been held. Given the levels of incompetence in the SAPS, we can't expect every officer to understand the consequences of their heavy-handedness. But the attempt by MEC Leonard Ramatlakane to justify the arrest is lamentable.

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DEMOCRATIC Alliance leader and Cape Town mayor Helen Zille should act on the address list of suspected drug lords and gangsters who occupy council houses of which she, as mayor of Cape Town, is the owner.

This is the view of the Western Cape acting premier Leonard Ramatlakane, MEC for community safety.

Reacting to her arrest on Sunday during a march that involved door-to-door visits to known drug dealers, Ramatlakane accused Zille of contravening the law in her quest for public support.

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ANC secretary-general Kgalema Motlanthe says the arrest of DA leader and Cape Town mayor Helen Zille is "very unfortunate". She should be treated with respect and dignity to protect the image of South Africa.

Although the rule of law had to take its course, he said, the status of Zille's office should be considered.

His comments in Johannesburg yesterday came amid scenes of jubilation outside the Mitchell's Plain magistrate's court where Zille and residents welcomed Amien Maker, a Muslim cleric, as he emerged from court.

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AS COULD have been expected, there are now two sides of the story being told after the arrest of Democratic Alliance (DA) leader and Cape Town mayor Helen Zille and eight others following a march to protest illegal drug dealing in Cape Town on Sunday.

Police spokesperson Captain Elliot Sinyangana confirmed the arrest and said it was done because the group had been "illegally" gathered in front of the Mitchell's Plain police station.

Sinyangana said during the legal march earlier in the day, one of the march organisers violated the stipulated conditions by instigating the group (including the mayor) to act illegally.

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DRUGS such as tik and cocaine are being used in Grahamstown schools, township residents toss their rubbish in the streets because they don't know where else to throw it, and a restaurant promoting street children's art could be linked to American cafes.

These were a few of the research findings and suggestions presented by 23 American and 23 African students at a press conference in Grahamstown yesterday.

The group, which included NMMU students Anelisa Ngcibi and Andiswa Nikata, attended a three-week research course which resulted in the launch of nine township-focused community projects.

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South Africans are changing their hard-drug habits, but the fallout from substance abuse remains the same: the destruction of lives, families and communities.

Heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine abuse has risen substantially in the past few years, while the use of once-popular drugs such as Mandrax has waned, according to a recent report by South Africa's Medical Research Council (MRC).

The findings have raised concern about the spread of HIV/Aids through practices such as needle sharing among drug users, and incidents of serious crime by users looking to bankroll their addiction.

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As Meth Trade Goes Global, South Africa Becomes A Hub Cape Town Gangs Barter Rare Shellfish For Drugs; Chinese, Russian Ties

CAPE TOWN, South Africa -- Welcoming a visitor to his apartment on the outskirts of this city, Igshaan "Sanie" Davids wore only silky maroon boxer shorts festooned with brightly colored ducks and the slogan "Totally Quackers," his ample belly sloping out far beyond the waistband.

Tattoos of the Statue of Liberty, the American flag and the U.S. dollar adorned his arms and back. Knife and bullet scars pitted his body. Mr. Davids is a leader of a Cape Town street gang called the Americans, South African law-enforcement officials say. The gang initiates its members with rites that twist the meaning of U.S. symbols.

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South Africa - a staging post to Europe and America - is winning the war against drugs, say the SA Police Service, the US government and independent South African security experts.

And the methods used in the war on drugs are improving all the time, say police, who have sent a warning to drug dealers that their drug-seizure operations have become much more sophisticated.

Last year police swooped on 52 illegal drug laboratories, and last week they continued with the crackdown when they bust two clandestine drug labs, one in Roodepoort and the other in the Free State.

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The national department of education has moved a step closer to introducing random searches for guns and drugs, and drug-testing, at schools with the publication of the Education Laws Amendment Bill for public comment this week.

The controversial bill has been on the cards since last year. Although welcomed by many schools and educators, it also raised questions about whether it was constitutional.

The bill seeks to give teachers and principals the right to search pupils and seize any drugs, weapons or objects that could be used to cause injury.

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