‘Once an activist, always an activist’ — MP Dereleen James continues to fight against drugs and gangs

“The shocking part about the ad hoc [committee] thus far, what it has shown me is that everyone has gotten into that seat to protect their reputation and their jobs — it’s been absolutely nothing about the public and South Africans,” said ActionSA MP Dereleen James.

James is one MP whose name has cropped up in recent weeks over her questioning at the parliamentary ad hoc committee that is attempting to unpack damning allegations of a drug cartel that has infiltrated South Africa’s policing network and politics.

The Madlanga Commission is also running an inquiry into the matter, based on allegations made by KwaZulu-Natal’s Police Commissioner, Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi.

Read more: Madlanga Commission

James is from Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, where she became well-known as an activist drawing attention to the growing issue of substance abuse among children.

She’s a single mother, and her son was addicted to drugs before he turned 18. She tried to get help for him, but her options were limited as rehabilitation centres only assisted those over 18.

“It also took me going to SAPS [South African Police Service], where people used to say to me, ‘You know what, if you can have him arrested, that’s going to be the end of your problems’, and that wasn’t,” she said.

In 2013, James, who was then working in the private sector, wrote a letter to the then president, Jacob Zuma, on behalf of single mothers in Eldorado Park, calling for intervention in Eldorado Park’s drug crisis.

In response to her letter, addressed to “Dear Dad”, Zuma and members of his Cabinet visited the area to meet with James and members of the community.

James said: “It was me just helping people in the community and other children and other mothers as a coping mechanism for me, you know, dealing with my own dramas at home. And I started becoming active in the community, assisting parents.”

She then found a rehabilitation centre in Tshwane that was willing to treat her son.

“I went into this thing full swing. And without the know-how … I didn’t understand legislation. I just thought that … if I take your rehab, that’s the end of our problems. You know, it’s like going to the doctor and you’re going to come back healed. Little did I realise that recovery is a lifelong journey,” she said.

Since then, she has taken several substance abuse and recovery courses and is an accredited addiction recovery coach. In 2013, she founded the Yellow Ribbon Foundation, a community-based non-profit organisation that provides awareness, prevention and early intervention services to those with substance abuse disorders.

In 2018, she was appointed by the then police commissioner, Khetha Sithole, as a member of the  SAPS National Youth Crime Prevention Forum. The following year, she was appointed as a member of the SAPS National Anti-Drug and Gangsterism Priority Forum.

She also served on the Central Drug Authority, a body responsible for the implementation of the National Drug Master Plan, which works with 21 government departments.

Joining ActionSA

Asked how she entered politics, she replied: “I actually dislike the name politician. I think once an activist, always an activist.”

She met Herman Mashaba, who is now the leader of ActionSA, in 2018, when he was the mayor of Johannesburg, at the opening of Eldorado Park’s first substance abuse centre.

“He came to Eldorado Park. I showed up there — he did the one thing that I’ve always been advocating for, and I think that’s what got my foot into the door,” she said.

She was attracted to ActionSA, she said, because it was the only political party that spoke about drug addiction.

“For me, it was the fact that ActionSA found space in their policies to address substance abuse. I believe substance abuse is the new struggle that is facing the youth of South Africa.”

After the 2024 elections, James was elected as one of the party’s six MPs in Parliament. In addition to being a member of the ad hoc committee, she is also a member of the committees that oversee the police and social development.

James said what she loved the most about Parliament was undertaking oversight visits. “I dislike being [within] walls. I dislike sitting in that place, being in an office, being office-bound, sitting in this chair.”

Her oversight visits to police stations and communities enable her to interrogate official reports presented in Parliament by using direct, field-based experience instead of relying on the documents provided.

The ad hoc committee 

“So the ad hoc committee is very frustrating in terms of the level of accountability and the level of truth in terms of someone just coming and speaking,” she said.

“There’s also a great lack in actually speaking about the impact [on] South Africans — like, are these people reading the [social media posts], aren’t they seeing the frustration out there?

“They come here [to Parliament], and they say stuff completely contradictory to what is out there in the public domain. So for me right now, I don’t see the interest of South Africans being put first by the witnesses that take to the stand,” she said.

What is the solution? 

While James concedes that while the SAPS won’t change overnight, there are some quick wins. First of all, she said, President Cyril Ramaphosa must fire the sidelined police minister, Senzo Mchunu, and the suspended deputy national police commissioner, Shadrack Sibiya.

Another solution would be re-examining the SAPS budget to allocate more resources to police stations, rather than to national offices.

Next would be the intervention of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) in gang-ridden communities.

“I’m not saying that they must come down with the same militant approach, but because people are saying, ‘Yeah, we’re going to call SANDF; if they’re going to kill our children, they’re going to kick them.’ We had them during Covid. We had them during the World Cup,” she said.

“Why can’t we redeploy them right now to be sort of a complement for SAPS, going to our communities, stabilise crime over a period of time, even if it’s a year, while SAPS is getting their house in order?” DM