{"id":31482,"date":"2026-10-16T14:30:20","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T18:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=31482"},"modified":"2026-10-16T14:30:20","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T18:30:20","slug":"patients-in-chains-rescued-from-suspected-illegal-rehab-centre-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2026\/10\/16\/patients-in-chains-rescued-from-suspected-illegal-rehab-centre-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Patients in chains rescued from suspected illegal rehab centre in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A pastor and his wife have been arrested in South Africa after 200 people, some in chains, were found held at a suspected illegal rehabilitation centre in the north-eastern part of the country.<\/b><\/p>\n

The facility, operated from a church in Mpumalanga province, was discovered during an operation by officials in the area.<\/p>\n

Authorities said they uncovered “gross inhumane conditions” when they raided the facility, with some patients found with “sores all over their bodies” and “others chained to each other”.<\/p>\n

Police have since charged the couple, who were running the facility, with kidnapping but could add more charges. They have not yet commented.<\/p>\n

Illegal rehabilitation centres have mushroomed in South Africa in recent years as drug use spirals in the country.<\/p>\n

Last year, the department of social development said it had uncovered over 100 unlawful facilities operating across the country, mostly in Gauteng province, home to the country’s largest city, Johannesburg.<\/p>\n

A girl of 16 and a boy of 11 were found being kept in the same room as adults in the Mpumalanga centre.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"A<\/picture><\/span>Two minors were among the 200 people found living in crowded rooms at the facility (Image: <\/span>South Africa Police Service)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The couple running it told officials they were housing 60 people, but upon inspection, more than three times that number were found, including more than 30 women.<\/p>\n

The group, mostly believed to be drug addicts, were found in crowded rooms and without access to functioning bathrooms or running water.<\/p>\n

“Some [of them had] been at the alleged illegal centre for a while,” the department said.<\/p>\n

Gift Skhosana, one of those held at the facility, told local broadcaster Newzroom Afrika it was “common practice” for patients to be chained.<\/p>\n

“They chain us as punishment [and] when you gain entry,” he said.<\/p>\n

Despite this, Skhosana, who was a drug user, said the facility helped him get clean and overcome his addiction.<\/p>\n

Another person, who was not named, said his experience with the facility left him needing help mentally.<\/p>\n

The couple charged a monthly fee of 3,000 rand ($182; \u00a3137) to house the patients, of which almost a half would go to the church.<\/p>\n

Fourteen of those found at the centre have since been taken to hospital for further medical treatment, police said.<\/p>\n

Officials said 132 have been reunited with their families.<\/p>\n

The couple were expected to appear in a local court.<\/p>\n

Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A pastor and his wife have been arrested in South Africa after 200 people, some in chains, were found held at a suspected illegal rehabilitation centre in the north-eastern part of the country. The facility, […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31483,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,2,6],"tags":[10178,138,13167,13166,6921,2635,10689,13165,977],"class_list":["post-31482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-human-rights","category-news","category-world","tag-gauteng-province","tag-human-rights","tag-illegal-rehabilitation-centre","tag-inhumane-conditions","tag-johannesburg","tag-kidnapping","tag-mpumalanga","tag-mpumalanga-province","tag-south-africa","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31482"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31484,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31482\/revisions\/31484"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}