SA 'mecca for human traffic'
2005-05-23 22:13
Mandy Rossouw and Philip de Bruin
Cape Town - Each day, nine people are reported as missing with the police, and many of them become the victims of human trafficking.
This came to the fore on Monday when the law commission reported that South Africa's involvement in human trafficking was extensive, but at present, no legislation existed to make this a criminal offence.
Proposed legislation can not be expected before June next year.
Louisa Stuurman, an investigator with the Law Commission looking into human trafficking, confirmed that the investigation had "already compiled substantial documentation".
The commission has classified its investigation as a priority because of the seriousness of the problem and evidence that South Africa was serving as a staging point for hordes of women and children.
Legislation must be airtight
These either ended up in the sex tradewere used as cheap labour or were moved on to Taiwan and other countries in the Far East.
Nevertheless, said Stuurman, it was the commission's duty to ensure that proposed legislation was absolutely correct and indisputable so that prosecutions did not fail because of technicalities.
In a reply to a question in parliament, Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula said 3 591 people had been reported missing in 2004, of whom 867 were children.
Since 2001, 13 067 people had been reported missing.
These figures were the highest since 2001 and Gauteng was the province with the highest number of people reported missing at 1 461.
According to Mike Waters, DA spokesperson for social development, the government ought to institute steps to ensure legislation was in place to prohibit trafficking in humans.
"Resources and training should also be made available to police to ensure missing people are traced quicker and to nip trafficking in the bud," he said.
"A quarter of the missing people are children. Lots of them will become the victims of human trafficking that has become a multimillion-rand trade.
"Children, especially, are used as sex slaves, drug traders, in child pornography and as cheap labour."
"Gauteng and the Western Cape have the highest number of missing children and are the most-popular "selling points" for human trafficking and abuse.
About 30% conviction rate
More than 51% of the missing children disappeared in Gauteng while the Western Cape's figure stood at 28.27%, said Waters.
Of all court cases involving kidnapping, about 30% led to convictions.
According to Fatima Chohan-Kota, chairperson of the portfolio committee on justice, no crime has been specified for human trafficking.
"In the bill on sexual transgressions, provision has been made for certain aspects of human trafficking, but it is not comprehensive.
"Common law, however, provides for crimes such as kidnapping," said Chohan-Kota.
In his reply, Ngakula said: "A person arrested for human trafficking will be detained in accordance with common law for crimes such as kidnapping and child stealing."