SACENDU Project Background
SACENDU was established in 1996 and is a network of researchers, practitioners, and policy makers from various sentinel areas in South Africa. Up until June 2006, these sites comprised of Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth (PE), East London (EL), Gauteng Province and Mpumalanga Province (MP). As some sites were beginning to also include data from other towns/cities (e.g.Durban included data from Pietermaritzburg and East London included data from SANCA (South African National Council on Alcoholism) satellite offices in Butterworth, Grahamstown, Fort Beaufort, and King Williams Town), it was decided to begin to report data by province. From the second half of 2006, data were also collected from treatment centres in the Free State, Northern Cape and North-West. Given the limited number of centres in these Provinces, these three provinces have been combined into a regional group termed the “Central Region.” In the Limpopo and Mpumalanga Provinces, the same problem exists, and it was decided to combine this data and we now refer to these two provinces as the Northern Region.
SACENDU Data Dashboard
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The SACENDU Project initiative has several specific objectives:
- To identify changes in the nature and extent of AOD (Alcohol and Other Drug) use and emerging problems.
- To identify changes in alcohol and other drug-related negative consequences.
- To inform policy, planning and advocacy efforts at local and other levels.
- To support networks of local role players in the substance use area.
- To stimulate research in new or under-researched areas that is likely to provide useful data to inform policy/planning decisions.
- To facilitate South Africa’s full participation in international fora focusing on the epidemiological surveillance of drug use.
News & Events
- Join Us for a Webinar Series: Innovative Harm Reduction: Lessons from Latin America (12, 19 & 26 August 2026)
- On the Viral Trend of Learners Inhaling Fire Extinguisher Powder and the Importance of Protecting Youth Mental Health,
Advancing Life | SAMRC Newsletter - April 7, 2025, Edible Cannabis Ban in South Africa: Something to Chew On?
Instructions - How to Add the Symposium Event to Your Calendar
Agendas
- 23 March 2026 – KwaZulu‑Natal (KZN)
- 24 March 2026 – Gauteng (GT)
- 25 March 2026 – Eastern Cape (EC)
- 26 March 2026 – Northern Region (NR)
- 27 March 2026 – Western Cape (WC)
- 30 March 2026 – Central Region (CR)
- SACENDU update (July - December 2025)
- SACENDU update (January - June 2025)
- SACENDU update (July - December 2024)
- SACENDU update (January - June 2024)
- SACENDU update (July- December 2023)
- SACENDU update (January - June 2023)
- SACENDU update (July - December 2022)
- SACENDU update (January- June 2022)
- SACENDU update (July - December 2021)
- SACENDU update (January - June 2021)
- SACENDU update (July – December 2020)
- SACENDU update (January - June 2020)
- SACENDU update (July-December 2019)
- SACENDU update (January - June 2019)
- SACENDU brief (January - June 2025)
- SACENDU brief (July - December 2024)
- SACENDU brief (January - June 2024)
- SACENDU brief (July- December 2023)
- SACENDU brief (January - June 2023)
- SACENDU brief (July - December 2022)
- SACENDU brief (January - June 2022)
- SACENDU brief (July- December 2021)
- SACENDU brief (January - June 2021)
- SACENDU brief (July – December 2020)
- SACENDU Brief (January - June 2020)
- SACENDU Brief (July - December 2019)
- SACENDU Brief (January - June 2019)
- Full report (Vol 26) - January - December 2024
- Full report (Vol 26) - January - December 2023
- Full report Vol 25(2) - January - December 2022
- Full report proceedings (July - December 2021) (Phase 51)
- Full report proceedings (January - June 2021) (Phase 50)
- Full report proceedings (July- December 2020) (Phase 49)
- Full report proceedings (January - June 2020) (Phase 48)
- Full report proceedings (July- December 2019) (Phase 47)
- Full report proceedings (January - June 2019) (Phase 46)
Eastern Cape
- Ms Nancy Hornsby - SACENDU Eastern Cape Treatment Demand Data
- Ms Jodilee Erasmus - NICRO Eastern Cape Data 2025
- Dr Carrie Brooke-Sumner, Dr Pieter Venter, Mr Sizwe Nkambule - Wastewater Surveillance for Drug Use Monitoring and Early Warning System Development (virtual)
- Mr Manezi Mcedani - Drug Checking and Overdose Prevention within Harms Reduction Programmes
- Ms Phumzile Mchunu - SACENDU Update on Community-Based Harm Reduction Services in Eastern Cape
- Ms Shaheema Allie - Web App ASSIST: Substance Use Screening Data from South Africa
- Prof Marelize Schoeman - Contexts of Risk: An Ecological Analysis of Childhood Psychoactive Substance Use in South Africa
- Ms Aadielah Maker Diedericks - Alcohol Availability and Gender Based Violence: A Four-Country Study
Gauteng
- Ms Jodilee Erasmus - SACENDU Gauteng Treatment Demand Data
- Ms Nancy Hornsby - NICRO Gauteng Data 2025
- Prof Nadine Harker, Dr Pieter Venter, Mr Sizwe Nkambule - Wastewater Surveillance for Drug Use Monitoring and Early Warning System Development
- Mr Manezi Mcedani - Drug Checking and Overdose Prevention within Harm Reduction Programmes
- Mr Tendai Makina - SACENDU Update on Community-Based Harm Reduction Services in Gauteng
- Prof Goodman Sibeko - Web App ASSIST: Substance Use Screening Data from South Africa
- Lt Col Marius Botha - PCI: SOCI: SANEB Annual Threat Picture
- Dr Sebenzile Nkosi - Correlates of and Reasons for Treatment Utilisation among Men who use Heroin/Nyaope in a Township Area of South Africa
- Prof Catherine Egbe - Tobacco Harm Reduction Under Scrutiny: Trends in E-cigarette Use and Polysubstance Use Among Clients in South African Substance Use Treatment Centres
Northern Region
- Ms Jodilee Erasmus - SACENDU Northern Region Treatment Demand Data
- Ms Nancy Hornsby - NICRO Northern Region Data 2025
- Prof Nadine Harker, Dr Pieter Venter, Mr Sizwe Nkambule - Wastewater Surveillance for Drug Use Monitoring and Early Warning System Development
- Mr Manezi Mcedani - Drug Checking and Overdose Prevention within Harms Reduction Programmes
- Ms Philasande Madosi - SACENDU Update on Community-Based Harm Reduction Services in Northern Region
- Prof Goodman Sibeko - Web App ASSIST: Substance Use Screening Data from South Africa
- Dr Thembinkosi P. Singwane - Reimagining Alcohol Harm Reduction within Communities: Evidence from a Mixed Methods Intervention Study in South Africa
- Ms Kashifa Ancer - Designing Prevention - A Systems and Policy Approach to Reducing Alcohol Harm in South Africa.
KwaZulu Natal
Central Region
- Ms Jodilee Erasmus - SACENDU Central Region Treatment Demand Data
- Ms Nancy Hornsby - NICRO Central Region Data 2025
- Prof Nadine Harker, Dr Pieter Venter, Mr Sizwe Nkambule - Wastewater Surveillance for Drug Use Monitoring and Early Warning System Development (virtual)
- Dr Carrie Brook-Sumner - Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Prevalence of Substance Use in South African Adolescents
- Ms Kashifa Ancer - Designing Prevention - A Systems and Policy Approach to Reducing Alcohol Harm in South Africa
- Ms Shaheema Allie - Web App ASSIST: Substance Use Screening Data from South Africa
- Prof Marelize Schoeman - Contexts of Risk: An Ecological Analysis of Childhood Psychoactive Substance Use in South Africa
Western Cape
- Prof Charles Parry - Illicit Drug Use, Harms and Trafficking in Africa: Key Developments and Implications for Monitoring and Surveillance Developments and Implications for Monitoring and Surveillance
- Ms Nancy Hornsby - SACENDU Western Cape Treatment Demand Data
- Ms Jodilee Erasmus - NICRO Western Cape Data 2025
- Prof Nadine Harker, Dr Pieter Venter, Mr Sizwe Nkambule - Wastewater Surveillance for Drug Use Monitoring and Early Warning System Development
- Ms Kayla Abel - Home of Hope Introduction
- Ms Bronwyn Gantana - SACENDU Update on Community-Based Harm Reduction Services in Western Cape
- Mr Manezi Mcedani - Implementing Drug Checking within a Harms Reduction Programme: Early experiences and Lessons from Cape Town, South Africa
- Ms Shaheema Allie - Web App ASSIST: Substance Use Screening Data from South Africa
- Prof Lizahn Cloete - From Prevention to Participation: Changing Life Trajectories in FASD
- Ms Aadielah Maker Diedericks - Alcohol Availability and Gender Based Violence: A Four-Country Study
- Dr Seluleko Ngcobo - Framing Alcohol-Related Harms to Children: Political Strategies of the Alcohol Industry to Avoid Blame and Externalise Responsibility
- Dr Simon Howell - Patterns and Anomalies in Drug-Related Arrests Across South African Police Precincts, 2005–2024
- Harker, N. et al. (2026) 'From courtroom to clinic: How legal rulings shape cannabis use among adolescents and young adults in South Africa,' International Journal of Drug Policy, 149, p. 105151. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2026.105151
- Harker, N., & Sibeko, G. (2025). Navigating public health priorities: Substance use research in a constrained funding environment. South African Journal of Science, 121(5/6). https://doi.org/10.17159/sajs.2025/21942
Session 1: Drug Checking: What Happens When People Know What’s in Their Drugs?
- What is drug checking? | Clare Schmidt (Remedy Alliance, USA)
- Drug Checking in Mexico’s Zona Norte | Clara Fleiz Bautista (Autonmous University of Mexico, Mexico)
- Checa tu sustancia! | Zara Snapp (Instituto RIA, Mexico)
- Facilitator: Andrew Scheibe (TB HIV Care, South Africa)
Session 2: Early Warning Systems: Responding to an increasingly toxic drug supply
- Early warning systems | Adams Sibley (University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, USA)
- NORTEST MX: Community Drug Checking Network of Northern Mexico’s Border Region | Alejandro Ortiz Ramírez (Programa
Compañeros, Mexico) - Facilitator: Nadine Harker (SAMRC, South Africa)
Session 3: Overdose Prevention Sites: The Intervention Everyone Debates and Nobody Regrets
- LA ZONA, a safe space in Tijuana | Alfonso Chavez Rivera (Prevencasa, Mexico)
- An accompanied consumption room in Cali | Alejandro Ángel López (Viviendo, Colombia)
- Verter: safe consumption in Mexicali | Jaime Arredondo Sanchez Lira (Verter, Mexico)
- Facilitator: Shaun Shelly (Consultant, South Africa)
Hosted by the SACENDU Research Uptake and Evidence-Based Information Sharing Platform
Session 1 - 30 August 2024
- What are the implications of substance use on both familial dynamics and community well-being?
- What strategies can a family employ to cope with the challenges of supporting a person who uses drugs (PWUD) or struggles with alcohol?
Presentations
- Ripple Effects -The impact of substance abuse on families and communities
- The Family and Substance Use Disorders
Video
Session 2 - 6 September 2024
- What measures do substance treatment centers implement to address familial burnout?
Presentations
- 2021 Membership Survey Results
- Engaging Families & Significant Others
- THE MATRIX MODEL FAMILY PROGRAMME
Video
Session 3 - 13 September 2024
To what extent does familial support facilitate substance use recovery
Presentation
To what extent does familial support facilitate substance use recovery
Video
Session 4 - 20 September 2024
- Strategies that healthcare professionals employ to address burnout resulting from providing care to individuals with substance use disorders
Presentation
Video
Substance Treatment Services Directory - ITTC University of Cape Town
Information regarding data analyses & recruitment of new treatment centres
Bi-annual meetings, reports, presentations, updates, regional data representations, treatment data collection forms or becoming part of the SACENDU network
For any queries, comments or concerns related to SACENDU
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SACENDU Privacy Statement “The South African Community Epidemiology Network on Drug Use (SACENDU), a project of the Mental Health, Alcohol, Substance Use and Tobacco Research Unit (MAST-RU), upholds the right to privacy, confidentiality and protection of personal information as enshrined in the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA). SACENDU will take all reasonable precautions by deidentifying any information that may be deemed as ‘personal information’. Personal information will be processed in a manner that adheres to the 8 POPIA conditions: (1) Accountability; (2) Processing limitation; (3) Purpose specification; (4) Further processing limitation; (5) Information quality; (6) Openness; (7) Security safeguards; (8) Data subject participation. By entering into a collaboration agreement with SACENDU, all partners (internal and/or external) commit to upholding these POPIA conditions at all times during the partnership. SACENDU does not take responsibility for POPIA violations where activities by partners do not fall under the remit of the collaboration. Where the violations are directly related to the collaboration, SACENDU, together with the partner, will take all necessary measures to rectify such violations.” |