South African drug tsars visited Brighton and Hove for help in tackling the country's heroin, cocaine and cannabis dependency.

Frank Kahn and Professor Solomon Rataemane, of the South African Central Drugs Authority, came to the city yesterday on the invitation of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

They said they chose to come to Brighton and Hove because of its awide range of drug treatment.

Professor Rataemane, who works in the psychiatry department at the University of the Orange Free State, said: "We have a few rehabilitation programmes but they are run by non-governmental organisations.

"They are inadequate for the problems we have. The British Government started to take these problems seriously before our government did and we believe there is a lot we can learn here."

Since the end of apartheid, the South African government has begun to focus on social issues, including drug and alcohol abuse.

South Africa has problems with trafficking of heroin from the Far East and cocaine from South America.

The other main problems are the use of cannabis, grown in South Africa, and mandrax, an amphetamine which is imported from India.

The Central Drugs Authority wants to tighten up controls of imported drugs and ban the growth of cannabis.

South Africa also has alcohol problems among the poorer black community.

Mr Kahn, who is also the attorney general of the Western Cape, said: "Brighton and Hove has the best drug rehabilitation services I have seen and I would like to set up similar services in South Africa.

"Now our political difficulties are sorted out we are more focused on the social welfare of the individual and we see things we maybe did not see in the past.

"Alcoholism is still one of our biggest problems. Some 4.4 per cent of the babies born in South Africa develop an alcohol addiction as a foetus.

"We want to introduce warnings on alcohol and cigarettes but the problem is we have 11 different languages and literacy levels differ widely."

Andy Winter, who emigrated from South Africa in 1979 and works for Brighton Housing Trust's Recovery Project, hopes to work with Mr Kahn and Professor Rataemane.

He said: "I am pleased they have been impressed by what they have seen here. Some 90 per cent of the people who complete our programme stay drug, alcohol and crime-free for at least their first year.

"The area I used to live in in Cape Town had big problems with drugs.

"But when you have apartheid, no basic sanitation, an abundance of alcohol and extreme poverty it is no wonder the current problems developed."

As well as visiting the Recovery Project Mr Kahn and Professor Rataemane met representatives from the Substance Misuse Service, the Crime Reduction Initiative, Equinox wet and dry drink crisis centre, Addaction and Brighton Oasis Project for women drug users.