S.Africa's human trafficking drama under the spotlight (News Feature)

By Clare Byrne Mar 24, 2010, 12:54 GMT

Johannesburg - South Africa has a 'serious' human trafficking problem, with adults and children being smuggled into the country from Asia, eastern Europe and other parts of Africa for sexual and other forms of exploitation, a report found Wednesday.

The report, which was compiled by a state research agency on behalf of the National Prosecuting Authority, provides a comprehensive snapshot of the human trafficking situation in Africa's biggest economy.

Women are trafficked from eastern Europe and Asia into South Africa mainly for sexual work, while other African countries supply women, children and men to South Africa for the purposes of prostitution, forced labour and other inhumane practises, the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) found.

'The demand for under-age girls for purposes of sexual exploitation is a disturbing feature of the South African trafficking landscape,' the report stated.

One of the factors driving the demand for girls was 'the perception that young girls pose less of a risk in terms of HIV', it said.

Some African men also believe that sleeping with a virgin can cure them of the deadly virus.

Mozambican girls as young as 16 are being lured to Johannesburg or Pretoria on the promise of a good job only to find themselves forced into prostitution. A number of such cases have been uncovered and prosecuted over the past two years.

Within South Africa's own borders, trafficking is also prevalent, with women, girls and boys in impoverished rural areas mostly being targeted for work or sexual exploitation in cities, the report said.

Researchers found evidence of children in parts of the Western Cape, where Cape Town is situated, being prostituted to pay off their parents' loans.

They also heard anecdotal reports of children being trafficked to be used as human sacrifices in Satanic rituals in Gauteng province, where Johannesburg is located, lead researcher Professor Carol Allais of the University of South Africa told the German Press Agency dpa.

While the trafficking of human body parts for use in African traditional medicine is well documented, this is the first such report of human sacrifices by white sects.

Police in Gauteng were not immediately available for comment on that aspect.

The HSRC report did not put a figure on the scale of the trafficking problem, saying poor data collection by authorities made the task impossible and calling for further research to provide solid estimates.

An investigation by South Africa's City Press weekly estimated that thousands of women and girls were being smuggled into South Africa each year. A Mozambican gang the newspaper uncovered was allegedly trafficking between 30 and 40 women and girls across the border each month.

The situation has come under the spotlight in the run-up to the football World Cup.

Some analysts have expressed fears that the influx of an expected 350,000 football fans for the June 11 - July 11 tournament will increase demand for prostitutes and fuel the trafficking of women.

Officials warned last month that up to 40,000 women could enter the country to work as prostitutes during the tournament.

'Big international sporting events do increase the risk (of trafficking). For example, you may have more parents putting their children out to beg,' Allais said.

But, Allais said, the estimate of 40,000 women were 'highly exaggerated' and 'alarmist'.

South Africa does not currently have laws dedicated to human trafficking. A bill on trafficking has just been tabled in parliament but could take over a year to become law.

This week, prosecutors obtained their first conviction in a sex trafficking case when they brought a successful case against a South African man and a Thai national on charges of racketeering relating to sexual exploitation.

The two were convicted for trafficking of three Thai prostitutes to work in a brothel in the port city of Durban. They face life imprisonment or a fine of several million dollars.

Thai women constitute the biggest group of foreign women trafficked into South Africa.