Child-sex probe widens its net

2004-11-22 16:44

JOhannesburg - Police investigating child-sex rings will learn on Wednesday if the missing persons bureau believes there are more missing children being held as sex slaves.

"Five or six minors make up our mandate at the moemnt," said superintendent André Neethling of the Gauteng child protection unit, which is investigating the case.

"There is a specific group trying to extend itself. We have found that missing children in Rosettenville are linked to rings in Benoni and Nigel.

"We intervened when it was spreading to Nigel."

Neethling said two "clients" had been arrested, a South African businessman and a Nigerian.

"We don't exclude the possibility of these cases being linked to others but we are focussing on the ones on which we are working."

Meanwhile, the SABC's website reports that a further three girls have been found at a well-known drug spot in Bloemfontein, which led police back to the Johannesburg suburb of Rosettenville.

Morphine found at the house

"A house in Rosettenville was raided and two more girls were rescued.

The girls apparently wanted to get out, and morphine that apparently was used during the abductions was found at the house.

"The girls were handed to child welfare and then returned to their parents. Seven more Nigerian syndicate members were arrested, bringing the total to 66," read the report.

Neethling said that, so far, no link had come up with the case of paedophile Gert van Rooyen who allegedly abducted five girls.

Yolanda Wessels, Anne-Marie Wapenaar and Fiona Harvey, all aged 12 at the time, Odette Boucher, 11, and Joan Horn, 13, were allegedly taken to Van Rooyen's house after they disappeared in 1988 and 1989.

Van Rooyen and his lover Joey Haarhoff committed suicide during a police chase after their last victim escaped.

Excavations of the garden and swimming pool in 1989 yielded no trace of the missing girls.

- SAPA