The Western Cape Social Development Department has had to remove a group of children from the Al Noor Child and Youth Care Centre in Woodstock, Cape Town.
This follows a number of reports that the children, aged between 11 and 17, were being physically and s-e-xually abused.
Western Cape Social Development MEC Sharna Fernandez says the decision to remove the children from the facility came after preliminary investigations were conducted
“We sent in a team to do some preliminary work and then based on their findings, we realised we had a situation where the lives of the children were at risk and we then needed to move swiftly to try to ease the burden”, said Fernandez.
The department has already placed the children in alternative facilities.
They have received counselling and every child will have an individual assessment. Obviously they have different profiles, we don’t yet understand the extent of the abuse and how it was meted out. We do know that the girl children have been more forthcoming in terms of their lived experiences.”
Officials at the centre have described the allegations as malicious and untested.
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Source: IOL