Girls & Boys Town distances itself from notorious Cape Town area called Boys Town

A national non-profit organisation that runs programmes to strengthen vulnerable youth, Girls & Boys Town South Africa (GBTSA), has distanced itself from an area in Cape Town, colloquially known as Boys Town.

“Girls & Boys Town South Africa (GBTSA) has nothing to do with the area in the Western Cape, colloquially known as ‘Boys Town’,” GBTSA chief executive, Lee Loynes, said.

She was clarifying the matter after media reports drew attention to the City of Cape Town seeking to interdict people threatening and intimidating construction workers at a housing project in Eersterivier.

In the application, reference was made to the murder of a community liaison officer who was shot and killed at the Boys Town construction site in Nyanga.

“We are worried that people might think this has something to do with GBTSA,“ she said, adding that the matter had nothing to do with the organisation.

“We run therapeutic residential centres for severely abused and neglected boys and girls placed with us via the Children’s (and not Criminal) Court in order that they heal, before they return to their families or into independent living,” Loynes said.

“The area colloquially known as Boys Town was the environment where our old GBTSA Duin-en-Dal therapeutic residence used to be located, before we moved to Macassar many years ago.

“We wanted to make this clear as our work, focused on healing young people over the last 62-years, relies on the ongoing loyalty and much valued support of our donors and the public at large,” she said.

The Western Cape human settlements MEC, Tertuis Simmers, on Monday expressed concern following “horrendous crimes” being committed at construction sites in Cape Town that included murder.

Last week at Forest Village in Eersterivier, a group of residents assaulted a contractor and intimidated staff at the construction site.

Simmers said his department would be filing papers in the Western Cape High Court on Tuesday to seek an urgent interdict against the groups of people committing these crimes in order to prevent them from interfering in the construction, and to stop them intimidating, threatening, assaulting or harassing those involved in the projects.

Source: ANA

Picture of Aneeqa Du Plessis
Aneeqa Du Plessis

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