Children living at the Central Methodist Church in Johannesburg could be forcefully removed by police if they refuse to be relocated to a place of safety.

That is if the provincial department of health and social development gets its way and removes the 75 children living in the overcrowded mission, which is home to mostly Zimbabwean refugees.

This follows reports that young girls and boys are allegedly being groomed by sexual predators and have been prostituting themselves while living at the church.

The church's bishop, Paul Verryn, has come under fire for "discouraging" children from moving, but he claims the children don't want to leave.

"In the past 24 hours, 10 children [who were relocated] have already come back [to the church]," he said.

But Simon Zwane, department spokesman, said yesterday: "As soon as the papers are finalised we will announce when we go to court. We want to get permission to get access to the children, to act in their interests and remove them as soon as possible."

Zwane told The Times that none of the children attended a meeting on Monday morning to discuss their relocation to places of safety.

"We feel that the children are being influenced not to co-operate with us," he said.

Verryn told The Times that he had told the children during Sunday's church services to attend the meeting.

Though not opposed to the move, he said every time he mentioned the possibility of the relocation the children told him that they don't want to move.

"They do not want to move, they've told me they'll just run away," he said.

Verryn cautioned that no place of safety was 100% safe, adding that he was concerned by the manner in which the department was dealing with the issue.

"They are threatening these children," he said.

 HARRIET McLEA