Month-old twins, allegedly sold by their mother for R50, and a 13-year-old girl allegedly sold into marriage by her mother.
These are among the scores of human-trafficking cases before SA’s courts. Among the alleged perpetrators are religious leaders, lawyers and even parents.
Activists say few victims, especially children, are ever found.
Among recently arrested suspected traffickers is a Johannesburg human-rights lawyer.
The 63-year-old advocate and his 53-year-old fellow accused, whom police arrested in August, appeared in the Johannesburg high court on Friday on 35 charges relating to the alleged procurement and trafficking of young boys for sex. The case was postponed until January 28 for a pretrial hearing.
The two were arrested after three of their victims escaped and alerted police.
In Gauteng, about 94 people, including children as young as 12, have been rescued from their captors in the past two months.
They include:
- 33 Ethiopians rescued by Johannesburg metro police and the South African Police Service from a locked room on a Midrand plot on Friday morning;
- 50 Ethiopians, including four children, rescued by the Hawks and Johannesburg police from a home in the middle-class Johannesburg west suburb of Zakariyya Park on October 14. They had been held for four months;
- 11 Ethiopians freed on October 22 by Johannesburg police from a storage facility in Meadowlands, Soweto, where they had been held for two months.
Some of the Ethiopians, according to court proceedings in the Johannesburg and Orlando magistrate's courts, were trafficked to Gauteng from their homeland while others were brought from the Western Cape, Eastern Cape and North West on the pretence of securing work.
Wayne Minnaar of the Johannesburg metro police said on Friday that officers had received information from police crime intelligence agents about captives in Midrand. Police found an Ethiopian guarding the premises, he said.
“The Ethiopian man refused to open for the police. Police had seen the victims in the room and broke open the door and rescued the victims.”
Minnaar said they rescued 33 Ethiopians and arrested the Ethiopian guard.
“It was discovered that earlier on Friday, 65 alleged victims were sold to other business owners for R17,000 per person. The people were collected before the police could arrive. Officers are searching for them.”
He said the rescued victims were taken to a place of safety.
Hawks spokesperson Brig Thandi Mbambo said among the cases the unit was investigating were two involving South African mothers who had allegedly sold their children.
She said the first case involved a Uitenhage mother who sold her 28-day-old twins to a South African couple.
“The mother asked the couple to pay her R50 a month until her child support grant was approved. The mother and the couple were arrested,” said Mbambo.
The second case involved a mother from the Eastern Cape town of Keiskammahoek who sold her 13-year-old daughter to a Bengali national to marry.
“He exploited the minor by engaging in sexual activities. The mother and the Bengali were both arrested in May.”
• 220 - The number of child trafficking cases under investigation in Gauteng
• 86 - The number of human trafficking cases the Hawks have investigated in 2021
• 27 - The number of human trafficking cases the Hawks have investigated in 2020
• R50 - The amount the Uitenhage mother sold her twins for
— In Numbers
Mbambo said the Hawks were investigating 86 human-trafficking cases, up from 27 in 2020.
She said 23 cases were under investigation in Gauteng, 13 in the Northern Cape, 11 in the Eastern Cape, 10 in the Western Cape, nine in Limpopo, seven in the Free State, five in KwaZulu-Natal and four each in Mpumalanga and North West.
She said the Hawks investigated 57 cases in 2018 and 41 in 2019.
“We have 68 cases before court.”
Gauteng police spokesperson Brig Brenda Muridili said that since 2019 there were 220 child-trafficking cases under investigation in the province.
The national department of social development failed to respond to questions. Pearl Moabelo, who is director of the Gauteng department of social development’s social crime prevention and victim empowerment programmes, said they had received 29 cases of child trafficking this year, up from 25 in 2019 and 16 in 2020.
Dr Shaheda Omar, director of Teddy Bear Clinic, which assists trafficked children after their rescue, said victims were becoming younger.
“They are often aged between 10 and 14.”
She said poverty played a big role in trafficking.
“Those behind these crimes lure their victims with money. Women are often used to lure victims as they are seen as more trustworthy. Rescuing child victims is nothing short of a miracle.”
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