What’s Next for South Africa’s Drug-User Rights Movement?

Shaun Shelly is a prominent figure in South Africa’s drug policy landscape. He is a founding member of the South African Network of People Who Use Drugs, which has been instrumental in bringing harm reduction into the public narrative and making sure people with lived experience have a voice in political discussions about substance use and criminalization. 

SANPUD has been instrumental in empowering local networks of people who use drugs, providing them with the tools and support necessary to advocate for their human rights effectively. 

Shelly, who uses methamphetamine—or tik, as it’s called here—is currently an independent consultant for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, as well as a research associate at the University of Pretoria’s Department of Family Medicine. He was formerly the executive director of Harm Reduction International. 

Filter spoke with Shelly about SANPUD’s early days, the organization’s future in a rapidly changing policy landscape and the challenges now facing harm reduction workers in South Africa. Our interview has been edited for length and clarity.

“The sex worker organization members were income producers, while the drug user members were net income consumers.”

Shaun Shelly: In 2016, I was working at [South African nonprofit] TB HIV Care. We were a core group of ignorant, inexperienced, underqualified, but thick-skinned and highly motivated people who pushed forward despite the constant objections and restrictions we faced. These were the early days of harm reduction in South Africa. 

South Africa needed the voice of people who use drugs—not only in the programs that served them, but also at a political level.

That was easier said than done. The sex worker movement, another criminalized key population group, was moving forward. The drug user movement was having a repeated series of false starts.

The sex worker organization members were income producers, while the drug user members were net income consumers. This meant that we needed to pay people and could not rely on volunteers.

We needed structure, and some people who could drive and establish a movement [but who] didn’t need the movement to survive. I was very fortunate to receive unrestricted funding from the Open Society Foundations and other donors, such as Mainline, who bought into the vision, and TB HIV Care gave me free rein to use my time as I saw fit. 

Before there was money to influence the way SANPUD would operate, we set out a list of principles. SANPUD would be a conduit and a representative organization—not a service provider. SANPUD would exist to ensure that small, community-based networks could have a representative voice at the national level; have the support and training to apply for grant funding; and become independent and viable organizations. 

In 2018, SANPUD was officially launched by the deputy minister of social development. They also received funding from the Dutch government, Robert Carr Fund and the Global Fund. Although I was appointed chair of the board, my day-to-day work with SANPUD was done.

To see small networks form and thrive despite being rejected by [others in] the community is particularly impressive. SANPUD funds a “Double or Quits” business incubator where networks compete to double an initial investment and secure further funding as they build small enterprises.

Politically, SANPUD has been pushing to ensure that the Global Fund Country Coordinating Mechanism creates a dedicated People Who Use Drugs sector. Ensuring participation, even as a sub-sector, has been a difficult task.

SS: There have been real disappointments when it comes to organizations that are supposed to protect the rights of people who use drugs, who have no understanding or consideration for their issues. We were initially encouraged by [the] country’s submission to the Global Fund that committed to funding SANPUD and its member organizations to monitor programs and record and follow up on human rights violations. These commitments never materialized. 

The past issues are minor compared to the situation many organizations currently face. The defunding of [the United States Agency for International Development] has, either directly or indirectly, resulted in services being reduced or even closed … including services to people who use drugs. This will be the biggest challenge that SANPUD has faced to date.

MB: What do you see as the next steps?

SS: Aidsfonds [recently closed] the Love Alliance program. Funding from the Dutch Foreign Ministry via Aidsfonds made up a significant portion of SANPUD’s core funding. Right now, despite all of the magnificent work done by SANPUD and the member organizations, and despite the critical role SANPUD now plays in the HIV, HCV, health and human rights sectors in South Africa, the future of SANPUD hangs in the balance. 

Ultimately, if SANPUD achieves the vision of a South Africa where drug policy aligns with our constitution, and people who use drugs are no longer criminalized, and enjoy the same rights guaranteed to all South Africans, then its work will be done. Despite all the progress, we are a long way from turning our vision into a reality.

The team and member organizations will do what they can with the little they have. SANPUD will have to find new sources of funding. This is nothing new for the community of people who use drugs. We will continue to demand “nothing about us without us.” But we long for the day when we are not seen as people who use drugs, but as people. 

Until then, to paraphrase the ending of Jon McGregor’s book Even the Dogs, SANPUD will do what people who use drugs and harm reductionists have always done: We rise. What else can we do? We fucking rise.

Anything I have achieved has been due to sheer luck and the hard work of the good people I am surrounded by. They know who they are. I had some good ideas and some terrible ones, but it was due to the efforts, hard work and expertise of others that anything went from idea to reality.

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