Roshila Pillay
The government has yet to formulate and implement legislation to prevent the trafficking of women and children, despite being a signatory to a United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organised Crime, which includes a protocol on trafficking in people.
South Africa first ratified a UN convention in trafficking and prostitution in 1951.
This week the need for stringent legislation on trafficking was highlighted after the arrest of two people on charges relating to the abduction of a seven-year-old girl from Pretoria about two weeks ago.
The girl was allegedly taken to Durban and then brought back to Gauteng and dumped in Benoni, on the East Rand. Police fear she might have been molested, after needle marks were found on her body.
“It could possibly have been a case of child trafficking. Durban is a tourist hub and [the abducted child] might have been taken there for use as a prostitute,” says Fran Jones, the national adviser on child, family and youth for the National Council of Women.
Police this week found 46 blank children’s passports that could have been made for people planning to smuggle children out of South Africa. One investigating officer at the South African Narcotics Bureau says they are quite certain the passports are authentic.
“There’s no such crime as trafficking. [A trafficker] can be prosecuted for specific other crimes, like kidnapping and abduction. The Childcare Act makes provision for this and the Law Commission is now looking into legislation regarding abuse,” says Anneke Pienaar, national commander of the family violence, child protection and sexual offences unit.
Asked whether she thought it necessary to make trafficking a crime, Pienaar said: “Then we would have to look at the definition of trafficking.” She refused to comment on whether there has been an increase of child and women trafficking locally, saying she was not at liberty to divulge statistics or related information.
The Department of Justice says there is adequate legislation to deal with the problem of trafficking. “The Minimum Sentences Act provides for punitive steps against perpetrators of these crimes. The government has gone further to beef up its fight against the trafficking of children and the use of children for labour,” says Paul Setsetse, the representative for Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development Penuell Maduna. Setsetse gives the example of Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana, who visits farms to check whether children are being used for labour.
“Immediately after the convention was signed, we appointed a representative to act as a link between ourselves and the UN, and to mobilise and implement the convention. The current laws are adequate to deal with the perpetrators of such crimes,” says Setsetse. The convention was adopted in December last year at the UN General Assembly.
The Trafficking of Children for the Purposes of Sexual Exploitation: South Africa, a report released by child rights organisation, Molo Songololo, pinpoints various reasons for the sexual exploitation of children.
These include poverty, a high rate of unemployment coupled with high school dropout levels, escalating domestic violence, an increase in the demand from local and foreign paedophiles and the lack of effective social welfare support and safety and protection services for children.
“We cannot say how many children are involved because child prostitution is a very secretive activity. The range that has been given is from 38?000 to 100?000, according to media reports,” says Karin Koen, chief researcher at Molo Songololo.
Koen says children as young as four are sold to local and foreign crime syndicates to supply the burgeoning sex trade. They are then used as prostitutes and in pornography, among other things.
Although President Thabo Mbeki spearheaded the establishment last year of a task team to investigate measures to remove child pornography from the Internet, very little has been achieved. Service providers do not have the capacity to monitor mail going through their systems and child pornography therefore escapes undetected.
Gert Jonker, chair of the Child in Crisis Foundation, says the proposed closure of the police family violence, child protection and sexual offences units in order to incorporate them into a larger, organised crime unit will affect negatively the quality of investigations into cases of sexual exploitation.
While South Africa has formulated stricter border controls to narrow the opportunities for syndicates involved in drug trafficking, illegal arms dealing and hijacking, the government has done nothing to stop the trade of children and women by such syndicates.
The Department of Social Development says Cape Town is fast becoming one of the world’s top sex tourism destinations.
“We seem to be quite eager to sign things but we don’t seem to have the back-up to prosecute. We need to seriously look at what type of legislation we have in place before ratifying a convention. We also need to ensure that we can practically implement what we have signed,” says Miranda Friedmann, the director for Women and Men Against Child Abuse.
Friedmann points out how speedily the Assets Forfeiture Act was established, while the debate around the Sexual Offences Bill has been going on for over a year.
In April last year already several Asian countries including China, Russia and Papua New Guinea adopted an action plan in a coordinated effort to combat trafficking of women and children.
“Trafficking is one of the fastest-growing and the most lucrative criminal enterprises in the world. After drugs and guns, it is considered the third-largest source of profits for organised crime,” says Ralph Bouyce, former United States deputy assistant secretary of state.
“We really need to have more stringent laws regarding the trafficking of children. It has become the new slavery of the 21st century,” says Friedmann.