Just days after Ellen Pakkies was released from a Cape Town psychiatric hospital where she had spent a month as an inpatient following a nervous breakdown, a play based on her life is set to premiere at an national arts festival next week. Pakkies, a 50-year old former nurse, made international headlines after killing her 20-year old son Abie following years of abuse relating to his methamphetamine addiction. The September 2007 murder was the culmination of a long history of unsuccessful attempts to control Abie's addiction including numerous convictions for theft, drug abuse, and domestic violence. Friends and family of Ellen Pakkies described her as a long-suffering woman who finally snapped and strangled her son in his sleep. Abie Pakkies had been abusing drugs since he was 14 and had been terrorizing his family and neigbours for years. She was found guilty of murder and received a three-year suspended sentence. She also served 280 hours of community service which was interrupted by her psychiatric admission.
The Ellen Pakkies case has become celebrated in local circles due to the domestic violence and drug abuse issues. Crystal meth (known as "tik" in local slang due to the custom of smoking it in a light bulb) is a rampant social problem in South Africa and is often linked to violent crime. During her trial, she testified that her son threatened her and her husband with a knife, set fire to their curtains, and stole to finance his tik habit. In addition to the stage play scheduled to be released, Pakkies' story has already become the subject of a documentary film and a book, Dealing in Death: Ellen Pakkies and a Community's Struggles with Tik. She also founded the Ellen Pakkies Foundation focusing on drug addiction in the local community. In discussing her recent breakdown, she simply stated that "my body couldn't take it anymore". Family members commented that Ellen Pakkies never overcame her sadness over losing her son and was overwhelmed by the responsibilities of her community service and Foundation work.
The play based on her life, My Name is Ellen Pakkies, is set to premier at the Klein Karoo National Arts Festival on April 2. Intended to present her story to a wider audience, a seventh performance was planned after the first six performances were sold out. A percentage of the play's revenues will be donated to the Foundation and the play's producers hope that the donation will help with the construction of a planned rehabilitation centre.
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