Prostitution and drug allegations against shelter

For the past two years persistent rumours of drug activity and prostitution at The Haven shelter in Progress Avenue have refused to subside.

The rumours include the heavy use of crystalmethamphetamine by some residents, the prostitution of female residents and child molestation and the soliciting of prostitutes allegations against the senior pastor, Daniel Doorenward.

The Record recently gave 83-year-old Doorenward an opportunity to answer the allegations against him.

According to Doorenward who has been involved in the assistance of the destitute for the past 50 years, the allegations against him and The Haven, which was founded in 1979, are highly slanderous.

“If I had the money I would take them to court but I do not want to spend the last years of my life fighting court cases. In any case the damage done to my reputation has been irreparable. There are enough people who knows me and know it not to be true. God also knows the truth,” said the eloquent grey-bearded pastor.

Doorenward explained that most of the rumours spring from disgruntled residents. He said it is extremely difficult to manage the 53-odd residents who are often at loggerheads with him at the way he runs the shelter.

His assistant, missionary James Anderson, also weighed in on the conversation.

“You have to understand that almost all of the people who show up at our door comes here with a substance abuse problem whether it be hard drugs, dagga or alcoholism. The extent of their problem is to such a degree that society has shunned them. They are extremely difficult to reintegrate into society and there are often infighting between them and constant hostility aimed at us even though we try and help them,” said Anderson.

“This is no fun house, it can be hell sometimes and it takes guts to manage them,” he added.

Doorenward admitted there could be drug abuse taking place at the shelter but added that an official from the Department of Social Welfare, who did an inspection, told him its not more or less than at other similar institutions. He also said that he has called out the police’s drug unit at least five times to do searches but they told him that they are more interested in the runners, dealers and kingpins than the users.

He strongly denied the allegations of child molestation, picking up prostitutes from the nearby informal settlement or that he prostituted one of the female residents.

He smiled when he said it would be miraculous for a man of his age to be sexually active.

According to him the trouble started when he started taking in females as well as males. This brought about a bitter dispute between him and the umbrella church,The Assemblies of God fellowship, to which he submitted, and he said what started out as a moles heap of rumours became a tool in a campaign to discredit him and tarnish his reputation. He also said that due to the rumours The Haven has lost many of their sponsors and he and Anderson had been working for a year without any remuneration.

Doorenward said he appreciated the opportunity to set the record straight but wished people would concentrate on the positive work that is being done. He also said that he is not ready to step down yet since he is looking for a suitable person to follow in his footsteps.