Anthony Saul is in two minds about his stay at Noupoort Christian Care Centre - he has given up heroin, but feels degraded by his stay.
Lack of eating utensils, being refused medical attention for an ear infection or for a dog bite, having to eat food long past its sell-by date and poor ablution facilities are some of the "little things" he mentioned.
"They use old Spoornet buildings, especially at the detention block where I stayed. It's very poor accommodation, not meant to be luxurious," said Saul.
He didn't mind the lack of luxury so much, though. "Five-star treatment doesn't work for drug addicts. It's a tough place and drug addicts can be the worst people to work with."
Saul, 25, of Edgemead, often heard fellow patients talk about how much they wanted to get out and score drugs, but the second any of them told a staff member about how they were feeling they would be punished by being locked up.
"It's a Christian rehab centre but they're more into punishment. Sometimes they hit the okes. They have to use self-defence but they could have used other means of punishment, not just locking them up," he said.
Treatment of patients at the centre in the Northern Cape made media headlines in 2000 when a patient hanged himself, and again in 2001 when a 17-year-old heroin addict was found dead at the centre's barracks. A third death was attributed to diabetes.
A government-appointed task team which visited the centre in the past week advised Minister of Social Development Zola Skweyiya to close the centre because of the violation of the constitutional rights of patients through neglect of their medical care and infringement of their religious rights.
Skweyiya's spokesperson, Mbulelo Musi, said the centre was not compliant with several laws and regulations including the Child Care Act, rules about corporate governance or norms and standards governing drug rehabilitation centres.
He said the centre's director had until July 12 to explain why it should remain open.
The facility houses about 170 residents and 40 staff members. There are 56 teenagers at the centre who are in school, 34 of them in matric.
Mbulelo said the minister might have no choice but to close the centre.
The department was in contact with local authorities in the town of Noupoort as well as in Cape Town to look at alternative accommodation if necessary. "We don't want to throw the children out on to the streets," he said.
Pastor Stophos Nissiotis, director of the Noupoort Christian Care Centre, said he had not received any correspondence asking for a motivation to keep the centre open.
He said the centre was compliant with all the relevant requirements of the Drug Dependency Act and he did not know the why it was refused permanent registration.
"We did receive a fax advising us that the application for permanent registration was refused. It says a follow-up report will arrive shortly," said Nissiotis.
He said the centre was the largest rehabilitation centre of its kind in the country. It was known for its "tough-love" approach, which was seen as a last resort by many parents.
Saul spent three years working in Britain as a cargo handler for British Airways, earning pounds and falling in with the wrong crowd. When he returned to South Africa in 2003 he had a serious heroin addiction which only worsened. "My dad saw when I worked for him that I had a problem," said Saul.
On the advice of a police detective, his parents booked him into Noupoort and he toughed out an eight-month stint between September and April this year.
At first he was a patient and then he graduated to the staff. Working as a project leader he was in charge of six or seven other young men fixing cars.
"There was no communication with the centre. If there was a problem, what were we supposed to do?"
He was ignored when he expressed concern about the lack of a medical kit at the workshop, which was almost five kilometres away from the main centre.
"When the food was delivered at night it arrived on an open bakkie and we'd be eating sand," he said.
He doesn't think the centre can continue functioning in its current form.
"We're still human beings, we still have rights. It's his Nissiotis's own fault that they're closing him down."