TITLE:
Investigating the Implementation of the Ke-Moja Substance Abuse Prevention Programme in South Africa’s Gauteng Province
AUTHORS:
Priscalia Khosa, Nkosiyazi Dube, Thobeka S. Nkomo
KEYWORDS:
Substance Abuse, School Children, Youth, Prevention Strategies, “Ke Moja” Programme, South Africa
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.5 No.8,
August
4,
2017
ABSTRACT: Internationally and locally, substance abuse by primary and secondary school learners is a major public health issue. In an attempt to curb this problem, the South African government introduced the “Ke Moja I’m fine without drugs” substance abuse prevention programme. The “Ke Moja” programme was launched in 2003 and was rolled out to schools in all the five regions of South Africa’s Gauteng Province. This paper analyses documents which guided the implementation of the “Ke Moja I’m fine without drugs” programme as well as the National Drug Master Plan. Thematic content analysis was also used to analyse an in-depth interview with the director of Africa Youth Development Fund (AYDF) organization which administers the “Ke Moja” programme in order to establish how the programme was implemented within the Gauteng schools. Although the study established that there was a lack of consistency in terms of the implementation of the programme across schools within the five regions in Gauteng Province, the “Ke Moja” programme was found to be well received by learners and out of school youth.