Shut Noupoort - grieving dad
2002-05-09 11:42
Johannesburg - The Noupoort Christian Care Centre for drug addicts should be closed down, says Richard Klingenburg, father of Pretoria teenager Logan (16), who died there last year.
"How many more people have to be assaulted, or even die, before someone will do something about Noupoort?" asked Klingenberg.
He has still not come to terms with his son's death. "I have to live with the thought every day. On May 15, it will be a year since Logan died, and now all the painful memories have flooded back."
Logan died in the centre's Midlandia detention barracks after he was chained by the neck in a cell. He was addicted to heroin and treated at several rehabilitation centres before his mother decided to send him to Noupoort.
'What really happens there?'
Klingenberg said Noupoort misled people about their mission. "They claim to uphold Christian values, but who knows what really happens there?"
He said he was shocked speechless when he read about the two men who were allegedly assaulted at the centre at the weekend.
Jacques Roux (27) and Joe van Vuuren (24) were apparently chained to a truck by their ankles. Earlier on Sunday, they had drunk beer while tending sheep. They returned drunk to the centre.
Icy water was poured over them while they were chained to the truck. The water apparently caused a short circuit in an electrical extension cord leading to a radio-cassette player on the truck's bonnet. This allegedly sent an electric shock through the men.
After his son's death, Klingenberg called for the centre be closed down, but to no avail. "This time, they will again have excuses to keep the place open," he said.
The case against the two suspects connected to his son's death has been dismissed. "I don't have words to express how I feel," he said. "Is the death of a child during a rehabilitation programme acceptable to the social development minister?"
The murder charges against Fabian Grenz and David Barber were changed to a judicial inquiry.
Murder charge dropped
The Grahamstown director of public prosecutions decided that it must be determined whether negligence on the two men's part had led to Logan's death.
The parties involved in Logan's death will appear in the Noupoort magistrate's court on Tuesday to decide when the inquiry will take place.
Several parents whose children are being treated at Noupoort, said the centre had been unnecessarily criticised.
One mother said: "It is hell to live with a heroin addict, therefor I think there was nothing wrong with shackling the men. "
She said Noupoort turned her heroin-addicted son into a missionary.