GOOD Speech by Brett Herron,
GOOD Secretary-General & Member of the Western Cape Parliament
27 November 2025
Note to editor: This is a speech delivered in the discussion tabled by the ACDP on Procedures and interventions of the Western Cape Education Department to ensure the safety of teachers, learners, and school environments in cases involving learners affected by substance use.
The Western Cape Education Department claims to have procedures and interventions in place to protect teachers, learners, and school environments when children are affected by substance use.
But the lived reality tells a far more troubling story; these systems are fragmented, inconsistent, and fundamentally failing to keep young people away from drugs.
Schools cannot be expected to absorb the collapse of broader social safety nets. Teachers who are already overworked cannot be asked to manage addiction, trauma, and gang influence.
WCED policies may look adequate on paper, but in communities where gangs operate with impunity and treatment services are scarce, these interventions are barely making a dent.
In too many cases, learners are drawn into drug economies long before the state even notices them.
A part of the problem is the inconsistencies of municipal responses. Not every municipality in the Western Cape has a Drug Master Plan, an essential tool for coordinated, evidence-based work.
This means a child’s access to prevention and support often hinges on where they live rather than what they need. That is an indictment of governance, not an unfortunate oversight.
In my recent correspondence with the Child Commissioner, I called for a five-year plan to address the systemic issues facing children in this province. Substance abuse must form a core part of that plan.
This is not a critique of the Commissioner; in fact, the office is uniquely positioned to drive the whole-of-government coordination this crisis demands.
If we are serious about protecting young people, then substance use cannot remain siloed within education, social development, or policing. It requires unified political will.
Until provincial leadership confronts this crisis honestly and structurally, its inaction will continue to place children directly in harm’s way.