How to escape the ‘heroin hustle’: the project helping South African addicts

People using drugs in the centre of Pretoria. Heroin use has risen sharply in the country over the past decade. Photograph: Moeletsi Mabe/The Guardian

In the centre of the South African city of Pretoria, dozens of people mill around a dusty patch of land beside a main road, openly smoking and injecting drugs. Over the noise of cars whizzing past, one of the users, Benedict, explains that he started using heroin after he left home to get away from his abusive stepfather.

“I didn’t want to fight with him. I just ended up by myself, going to the town, sleeping on the street,” he says, “After some weeks, I started to smoke heroin with my friend.”