The police’s child protection unit say they have rescued 13 children over the last month in Gauteng and in Durban from a gang of men that used them for sex.
Superintendent Andre Neethling, head of the child protection unit in Gauteng, said the girls had been locked up and given crack cocaine, which had made them dependent on their captors.
He said the girls had been used for child-sex.
”The average ages of the girls is between 13 and 16, but some of the children we interviewed said they had been on the street since they were 11,” Neethling said.
He said 59 Nigerians had been arrested
Some of the girls were kidnapped, others had run away from home, but others had been sold to the criminals by their parents. Neethling said he believed this was part of a child sex syndicate which was operating across the country.
Most of the police operations have been in Johannesburg, in Rosettenville and Hillbrow, but on the weekend, police followed a lead to Durban, where they found a 14-year-old girl, Neethling said.
He said the two men with her were arrested and appeared in court on Wednesday.
Asked about the clients who funded this illegal industry, Neethling said: ”People need to realise that raping a child at a young age is totally unacceptable. It carries a life sentence. We will not tolerate it.” – Sapa