/ 1 July 2010

Mozambique newspaper retracts trafficking report

Mozambican newspaper <i>Canalmoz</i> on Wednesday retracted a story about human trafficking at the Komatipoort border.

Mozambican newspaper Canalmoz on Wednesday retracted a story about human trafficking at the Komatipoort border and apologised to its readers and the South African authorities.

The newspaper’s source had “started to say different things”, said Fernando Veloso, director of online daily Canalmoz.

“In fact, I don’t know if the story is real or if the source lied,” he said.

On Monday, Canalmoz reported that South African border officials discovered 20 children hidden in cardboard boxes and covered in blankets inside a truck at the border between Mozambique and South Africa.

The Mozambican and Thai children were aged between nine and 16 and were supposedly discovered at the Komatipoort border two weeks ago, the newspaper reported.

Veloso later said the truck driver had shown his cargo to the police himself.

“Maybe because he was unhappy. Maybe he wasn’t paid,” he said.

South African and Mozambican police denied that the incident had ever happened.

“These rumours are unfounded and mischievous, therefore we dispute them with all serious contempt they deserve,” said Mpumalanga police spokesperson Captain Leonard Hlathi.

No means to investigate further
Veloso on Tuesday said the newspaper stuck by the story, citing an anonymous source in the Department of Social Development.

However, when the newspaper contacted its source after the police denials, the person was nervous.

She could not “confirm information that [she] initially reported to us as certain”, Canalmoz reported on Wednesday.

“Now what I can say is that our source, when contacted again by our reporter, was very confused, and we could understand that it is not fair to maintain the story,” Veloso said.

“The source admitted yesterday evening that the story was not really well investigated when she talked to our reporter.

“I believe that maybe something happened, because it’s impossible that our source lied that much.”

The newspaper would rather retract the story, because it had no means to investigate further, said Veloso.

Earlier this year, human rights groups voiced concern over a possible increase in human trafficking to South Africa during the Soccer World Cup, which ends on July 11.

Border police underwent special training ahead of the tournament to spot human trafficking, authorities said at the time.

However, experts later warned that the risk should not be exaggerated.

“In order to gain attention for the problem and deal with something that’s regarded as a terrible human rights violation, we trot out statistics that often have no basis in fact,” said Institute for Security Studies senior researcher Chandre Gould. — Sapa