On
3rd Degree this Tuesday (24 January 2010):
Episode Title: Using Falaqa To Punish Drug Addicts
Broadcast date: 24 January 2010
Teaser ...For the first time, the man who initiated the brutal practice of Falaqa to punish drug addicts, speaks out.
With drug addiction out of control on the Cape Flats, desperate and poor families turned to unregistered Muslim rehab centres for help. In a misguided attempt to cure these addicts, some of the centres started using Falaqa. This involves beating the soles of the feet with a belt, often till they are blistered and bleeding.
3rd Degree uncovered what was happening in an investigation last year that was broadcast in July:
Unregistered Drug Rehabilitation Centres.
In many cases, the victims couldn’t walk for weeks. In some cases it went beyond beating just the feet - and the leaders of these centres as well as its inmates would lay into victims with whatever instrument they had at their disposal.
Now Tazliem Parker, the founder of the first rehab centre to use Falaqa, reveals what really happened behind closed doors. He now believes that the beatings do not cure addicts; they are just plain torture.
It’s widely denied that Falaqa is still used in Cape Town, but 3rd Degree exposes a facility that still tortures its patients and confronts the owner.