The world’s illicit drug landscape has changed, and to continue the fight requires new policies. One of these, explained former president Kgalema Motlanthe, who chairs the Eastern and Southern Africa Commission on Drugs, is the need for law enforcers to go after top traffickers instead of users, who are often arrested and simply add to overcrowded prisons.
Former South African president Kgalema Motlanthe has again urged law enforcers to go after “the big boys” of illicit narco trafficking instead of their clients, drug users.
He was speaking at a conference in Cape Town on Monday, 9 November 2026, as chair of the Eastern and Southern Africa Commission on Drugs (ESACD).
The conference was angled around the theme, “rethinking current policy responses to drug use and personal possession”.
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Time for change
Delegates described an “illicit drug world” that had transformed, and emphasised the need for policies and actions to be adapted to respond to this criminal threat.
The commission was formally launched in 2023 to help in the fight against drug trafficking.
DEALING WITH DRUGS New regional drug commission pushes for better support for drug users February 12, 2023 The organisation has since pushed for law enforcers to focus on narcotraffickers instead of criminalising drug users, who need better support.
The commission’s conference in Cape Town runs over two days (the first day on Monday was open to the media) at a time when shifting trafficking patterns have become more apparent in South Africa.
SA is now a transit, consumption and production hub of illicit…