Punish those who inflict atrocity

It is scarcely believable that, in this day and age, human beings can abuse others so badly that it evokes nightmare images of slavery.

Looking at the pictures accompanying our page 3 story today, it is apparent that a woman – and others like her – was chained to a concrete block… just like the slaves of old.

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If this doesn’t send a chill of anger and loathing down your spine, then we don’t know what will.

The woman and others were freed from their prison in a shanty in Diepsloot yesterday after neighbours saw a woman in chains wandering around.

The place is supposed to be a rehabilitation centre run by a church – but the inmates were kept in cramped conditions in the blazing heat in a way which accords with no civilised religion we know of.

Witnesses told security officers and cops that the inmates had also been whipped and lived in fear of the church.

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Even when they were rescued, the people would not give the name of the church, or sect, which had imprisoned them… confirming the cult-like power exerted over them.

We urge the authorities to bring to book those responsible for this atrocity and to gently rehabilitate the victims.