The managers of the controversial drug rehabilitation facility Noupoort Christian Care Centre said on Wednesday that they were disappointed by the department of social development's decision to shut it down.A spokesperson for the centre, Lukie Carelsen, said management was disappointed that it should hear from the media that the centre must close.
He said a full statement would be made on Thursday.
Carelsen, a former spokesperson for the Noupoort Parent Group, said the decision was not a surprise because the minister (Zola Skweyiya) had been running a "vendetta" against the centre for years.
The director of the centre, pastor Sophos Nissiotis, said he was surprised by the decision and confirmed that they had not being formally informed of the decision yet.
The department announced on Wednesday that the centre had been ordered to close after failing to provide convincing reasons why it should remain open.
"The department has no choice but to close down the centre in the interest of ensuring that human rights are upheld by such centres in their operations," Vusi Madonsela, director general of the department, said.
Madonsela said the decision to close the centre followed Skweyiya's request that the centre advance reasons why it should not be closed, after the production of a "damning" report from a delegation which investigated allegations of human rights violations there. - Sapa
See Noupoort rehab centre probed, South African Press Association, June 6, 2004
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