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City of Tshwane to turn pedophile’s property into house of safety

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The City of Tshwane and residents of Capital Park in Pretoria want to turn the yard of pedophile Gert van Rooyen, into a half-way house for abused woman and a drop-in centre.

The house was demolished during the police investigation of the abduction of at least six girls by Van Rooyen and his lover, Joey Haarhof.

The property still had a bond attached to it, and ABSA then donated the property to the police.

Councillor, Wayne Helfrich, who represented the MMC of Social and Community Development at the unveiling of a wall of remembrance at the property, says he is going to help turn the property into a positive space.

“I think the most important thing is to take the negativity away and turn it into a positive thing that builds the community. There’s a lot of pain and negativity involved in this property. So the idea is there are members in the community who are volunteering time and resources and as soon as we can get permission to use the property to turn it into a safe space drop-in centre where we can  have a weekly clinic service and family planning and counselling and we can just have community uplifted and we can take something evil and turn it into something good.”

 

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