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Child sex-slaves freed
18/11/2004 22:35 - (SA)
Johannesburg - In the last month, 13 girls - locked up, given drugs, and used for child-sex - have been rescued by a police task force.
Police believed this was part of a child-sex syndicate which was operating across the country, said superintendent Andre Neethling, head of the child protection unit in Gauteng, on Thursday.
He said 59 people had been arrested, all of them Nigerians.
"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," said Neethling.
Some of the girls were kidnapped, others had run away from home, but others had been sold to the criminals by their parents.
They were given crack cocaine, leading to addiction that made them dependant on their captors.
'Only the tip of the iceberg'
Most of the police operations have been in Johannesburg, in Rosettenville and Hillbrow, but at the weekend police followed a lead to Durban, where they found a 14-year-old girl who had been "sexually violated", said Neethling.
He said the two men with her were arrested and appeared in court on Wednesday.
The operations were continuing as police believed this was only the tip of the iceberg, and many more girls were still in the clutches of the criminals.
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."
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