National Department of Social Development    

The monitoring of treatment services to strengthen current surveillance system to track trends and drug prevalence in various provinces in partnership with a research company. This is a three-year research project starting from 1 October 2021 to 30 September 2024.

               

The mentoring of 18 emerging organisations in all 9 provinces in terms of governance, management and programme implementation is a three year project from 2024 to 2027.

               

Developed and implemented the Ripples support group programme for aftercare services in all 9 Provinces over a three-year period from 1 April 2019 to 30 March 2021.

               

The programme development of Nine comprehensive Substance use Treatment Programmes in all treatment settings for adults and adolescents (In-patients; Out-patients and Day care facilities) and the capacity building of social workers through SACSSP CPD accredited national training workshops provided in all 9 Provinces over a three year period from 1 April 2017 to 30 March 2019.

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Improved and redeveloped the training manuals for the Ke Moja drug awareness programme Minimum norms and standards for out-patient centres – UNODC.          

Model for the NDSD Treatment Model and The Model for the treatment of substance abuse dependent youth in residential facilities for National Department of Social Development.

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WITS Enterprise and School of Social Work

WITS Advance Substance use Disorders for Professionals (Post-graduation course) for Gauteng Department of Social Development and the City of Johannesburg was developed and partially implemented by SANCA National from 2017 to 2021.

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Corporate funders    

Programme development and roll out of an Underage drinking programme for secondary schools called “Best of Me…I’m alcohol free” due to the high prevalence of young being involve in risky and binge drinking patterns when it comes to alcohol. This programme was developed for secondary school learners and was implemented by social workers and social auxiliary workers of the “Smart Drinking Squad” of SAB ABInBev across five regions in South Africa. A total of 2307 learners received the Best-of-Me Programme in 9 schools within the five regions. The Best-of-Me programme reduced alcohol use by 9% in the Egoli Region. This is a good indication that the programme works to reduce underage drinking practices with adolescents in Secondary Schools in 2019.

 

SANCA National was the implementing partner with ABInBev Foundation in Alexandra township as part of the Gobal City Pilot from 1 January 2021 to 30 June 2022. The project involved to train liquor traders on Responsible Beverage services (RBS). The project showed that collaboration between all sectors is needed to make changes as a steering committee consisting out of the office of the mayor, government departments (SAPS, JMPD, Department of Social Development, Department of Education, local community clinics, Gauteng liquor board), NPOs, SAB AbInBev and the liquor associations was established. The 48 outlets did improve on covid-19 regulations, safety regulations and RBS regulations as shown in the baseline and endline assessments conducted during environmental scans, mystery shopper programme and other project activities. 
 

The behaviour change research project was conducted in Soweto to reduce risky alcohol use or problematic alcohol use in partnership with Distell from October 2021 to March 2022. SANCA National through the assistance of SANCA Soweto, implemented an App based programme that monitored a group of volunteers’ drinking habits and provided guidance on healthier drinking information. The study conducted by TDL showed that there was a reduction of over consumption of alcohol by the respondents. Another part of the project has expanded to school-based prevention programmes using an online programme called SMASH (Diageo) and DrinkIQ app with patrons at taverns to create awareness of alcohol harms and reducing overconsumption.  The treatment of 20 adults and 20 adolescents are part of the project for people that needs intervention. 
 

We have been establishing two independent community-based substance abuse treatment centres in Kuruman and Thabazimbi over the last three years on behalf of SIOC-CDT. These fully-fledged centres are providing a range of substance abuse programmes in their various communities to reduce and prevent the harms caused by substance abuse. The project is being concluded at the end of June 2026. 
 

SANCA National partnered with RDSP and the South African Alcohol Policy Alliance (SAAPA) to execute this project through the DG Murray Trust on behalf of the Lesedi Solar Park Trust. SANCA National assisted in the development of the Strategy for Reducing Harms related to Substance Abuse in the Lesedi Solar PV Project Communities for DGMT to be implemented within a radius of 50 kilometres of the Lesedi Solar PV Project in the Northern Cape. The project resulted in a larger collaboration amongst role players that included the research and the development of an intervention strategy suitable for and incorporating local contextual factors of each town. The three partners involved in the project, namely RDSP, SAAPA and SANCA National that are responsible for different aspects of the implementation of the strategy. 

 

The strategy was based on a situational analysis that was conducted using the survey to collect data in three towns of Dealesville, Danielskuil and Postmasburg, a project funded by the Lesedi Solar Park Trust through the DG Murray Trust. The report covers alcohol consumption patterns in the three towns sampled for the study and questions regarding the presence of alcohol outlets in these communities. Sixty field workers were trained to collect the data electronically. The findings of the study confirmed the high risky use of alcohol and other substances in these communities and the need for urgent in-patient treatment of 10% of the people interviewed. This showed the urgency for professional detoxification and withdrawal management that is needed at local hospitals in the area especially due to the scare’s resources and lack of treatment centres in the province. 

One of the objectives identified during the study was that the communities needed access to quality treatment services to reduce the harms caused by substance use disorders in their communities. This was achieved through the capacity building of professionals operating in the identified communities of Postmasburg, Danielskuil, Lime Cares, Skeyfontein and Groen water.

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The role of SANCA National was to capacitate a professional workforce to provide professional services for people with substance use disorders. This was achieved through a series of continued professional development (CPD) accredited training courses with 26 social workers from Department of Social Development and local NPO’s, 16 medical health care professionals from the Department of Health at the community clinics and the Postmasburg Hospital and 23 members of community-based organisations from the various communities. A total of 42 professionals and 23 lay counsellors were trained from August 2024 to June 2025.

The I-CAN project consists out of five evidence-based interventions for learners that use/misuse alcohol aged 14 to 17 years of age in secondary schools over a 12 month period. This project has been implemented for three years with funding from a corporate funder. This is our flagship project and reaches over 9,000 children, parents and educators with this project. 

 

 

 

Other Governmental Departments

The Ahanang manual for training in correctional settings for the National Department of Correctional Services that are still in used till today.

Developed the pilot National Schools Safety Programme for the Department of Education.

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