The Noupoort Christian Care Centre (NCCC) is to remain open for the time being, the Pretoria High Court ordered on Tuesday.
Judge William de Villiers ordered the director-general of the department of social development to grant a temporary registration certificate to Noupoort - pending a review application against the decision to close the centre - but on such conditions as the director-general deemed fit.
The department was also ordered to pay the costs of Noupoort's urgent application.
The judge said the centre had made a strong prima facie case for a review. It was imperative the centre remain registered pending a final decision in the review so that the centre could throughout be under the control of the department.
The director-general could, on conditions he deemed fit, authorise the present management of Noupoort to manage the centre. But it would be the department's duty to ensure proper control over the centre, he said.
Referring to a statement by the department that Noupoort had been "operating on an unsatisfactory basis since 1992", the judge said he found it difficult to understand why the government had not taken steps to close the centre long ago.
He said it would be impossible for Noupoort to re-open and operate on a viable basis if it was closed down at the end of March, but its review application succeeded.
The centre presently had 68 patients in various stages of rehabilitation and was the only rehabilitation centre to offer schooling for teenage patients. The centre expressed concern that patients would suffer a relapse if the centre were suddenly closed down.
De Villiers said the harm to the respondents, on the other hand, was negligible, as long as the director-general imposed proper conditions for the temporary registration of Noupoort and properly enforced them.
De Villiers quoted from an affidavit filed by the Noupoort managing director, Sophocles Nissiotis, who said his centre operated on a strict Christian principles and a voluntary basis, had an unprecedented success rate and could not comply with "norms and standards" that have not even been determined yet. He averred that Noupoort in fact complied with the law.
Noupoort spokesperson Lukie Carelsen invited the department of social development to discuss the way forward with the centre.
"With the enormous drug problem facing our nation and the lack of successful rehabilitation centres it is not in the interest of South Africa that NCCC is closed down.
"NCCC is asking the government to stop fighting Christian institutions that offer the only long term solution to drug addiction, namely the resurrected power of the Lord Jesus Christ," he said.
Carelsen said the department was "grossly biased" against the centre.
"The allegations of human right violations were again emphasised by the department's legal team to discredit the centre.
But the department had conceded that neither the centre nor any of its employees had ever been convicted of any human right violations or any crime, said Carelsen. - Sapa