Shock as addicted Pretoria man squanders R35 million on drugs and enjoying tlof tlof with 5 women at one go

PRETORIA – In the quiet, dusty stretches of Kameeldrift, Pretoria West, a 52-year-old man named John Griessel sits in a plastic chair, staring at the horizon. To a casual observer, he is just another face in the Filadelfia Ark shelter, one of the hundreds of destitute souls seeking refuge from the unforgiving streets of South Africa's capital. But Griessel is a man haunted by the ghosts of a former life—a life that included luxury cars, a sprawling townhouse, and a bank balance that once boasted R35 million.

Today, those millions are gone, evaporated into the acrid smoke of crystal meth and the fleeting euphoria of cocaine. His story is not merely one of personal ruin; it is a harrowing window into a national narcotics crisis that is currently tearing through the fabric of South African society, leaving a trail of broken families and empty bank accounts in its wake.

"If I didn't quit drugs, I'd be dead by now," Griessel says, his voice steady but carrying the weight of three decades of regret. His admission is stark, delivered with the blunt honesty of a man who has finally stopped running. For 34 years, Griessel was a prisoner of his own chemistry, a journey that began in the rebellious haze of his teenage years and ended in the total annihilation of his worldly success.

The Genesis of an Addiction

The descent began early. At the tender age of 15, while most of his peers were navigating the complexities of high school, Griessel was already experimenting with "zol"—the local term for cannabis. By 17, the experimentation had hardened into a clinical addiction. The transition from recreational use to habitual theft was swift. To fund his growing hunger for escape, he began stealing from his own family, a betrayal that would set the tone for the next three decades.

"I was buying drugs in Hillbrow. I was getting zol from taxi ranks in Boksburg," he recalls, mapping out a geography of addiction that spanned the most notorious drug hubs of Gauteng. His repertoire of substances grew increasingly lethal, moving from cannabis and ecstasy to the high-stakes world of cocaine, "cat" (methcathinone), and eventually, the devastating grip of crystal meth.

As his addiction deepened, so did his desperation. Griessel admits to a period of profound moral decay, during which he defrauded his late father of R5,000 every single week. It was a parasitic existence that only accelerated as his methods of consumption changed. "As I became badly addicted to cocaine, I stopped sniffing it, and I started smoking it. Life became difficult," he explains. The shift to smoking—often referred to as "freebasing"—marked a point of no return, where the intensity of the high was matched only by the rapidity of his financial and physical collapse.

A Multi-Million Rand Disappearing Act

The scale of Griessel's loss is difficult for many to comprehend. In the past six years alone, he estimates he squandered more than R3.5 million. But the true cost was far higher. His portfolio of assets, once a symbol of his hard-earned success, was systematically liquidated to feed the "monster." A townhouse in Ekurhuleni was lost, followed by his vehicles—a Nissan double cab and a Ford Figo.

For six years, the man who once lived in luxury was homeless, drifting through the shadows of Pretoria's urban landscape. "Drugs turned me selfish," he admits. "I was involved in sex triangles and would have tlof tlof with four or five women at a go." The lifestyle was a blur of narcotics and hedonism, a R30,000-a-month habit that left no room for the responsibilities of fatherhood or the dignity of a stable home.

"Drugs damaged my body, my family, and robbed my kids of a father for many years," Griessel says. He is a father of three, yet for much of their lives, he was a ghost, present in name but absent in spirit, consumed by the next fix.

The Broader Crisis: A City Under Siege

Griessel's story, while extreme in its financial scale, is symptomatic of a broader epidemic gripping Tshwane and the wider Gauteng province. Recent reports from the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime highlight a terrifying surge in the availability of synthetic drugs. Just this month, on 4 March 2026, police at OR Tambo International Airport seized methamphetamines valued at over R2 million, destined for international markets—a clear indicator of South Africa's role as both a consumer and a transit hub for global cartels.

In Pretoria, the crisis has shifted. While "nyaope"—a low-grade heroin cocktail—once dominated the streets, Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi recently warned that crystal meth has overtaken it as the "number one drug scourge" in the province. The impact on local communities has been devastating. Shelters like Filadelfia Ark are increasingly overwhelmed, struggling to provide for a growing population of the "new poor"—individuals like Griessel who have fallen from the middle and upper classes directly into destitution.

The challenges are compounded by a lack of public infrastructure. Recent research indicates that many addicts in South Africa are willing to seek help but find themselves barred by the high costs of private rehabilitation and the chronic shortage of state-funded beds. For many, the only path out is through faith-based missions and the sheer will to survive.

The Road to Redemption

For John Griessel, the turning point came on 26 February 2025. It followed a harrowing arrest in March 2025 for the possession of narcotics, a moment that forced him to confront the finality of his path. After 34 years of running, he simply stopped.

Remarkably, he is not walking this new path alone. His 47-year-old wife is also clean, and the couple is currently rebuilding their lives within the safety of the Filadelfia Ark community. "I enjoy the life of being sober. It's like we are on our honeymoon," she says, her words offering a rare glimmer of hope in a story otherwise defined by loss.

Amelda Hermann, the manager at Filadelfia Ark, watches the couple with a sense of cautious optimism. "John and his wife have really changed their lives and are walking a road with God," she notes. The shelter, which provides housing and food to over 500 destitute individuals, has seen many come and go, but the Griessels' transformation is being hailed as an inspiration to others still trapped in the cycle.

The Lingering Shadow

Despite his sobriety, the scars of the past three decades remain. The R35 million will not return, nor will the years lost to the "heroin hustle" and the meth pipe. Griessel's body bears the marks of long-term substance abuse, a physical testament to the "mitha" (meth) hell he endured.

As the sun sets over the Pretoria West horizon, Griessel's story serves as a sobering reminder of the fragility of success in the face of addiction. In a country where the drug market for cocaine and meth is now estimated to be worth approximately $3.5 billion annually, his journey from a multi-millionaire to a shelter resident is a cautionary tale for a generation.

He remains a man of simple needs now, focused on his sobriety and his faith. The luxury cars and the townhouse are gone, replaced by the quiet dignity of a clean life. In the end, John Griessel found that while R35 million could buy a lot of drugs, it couldn't buy the one thing he finally found in a Pretoria shelter: himself.

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