This week, the recent observance of World Day Against Trafficking in Persons has amplified calls for urgent action against human trafficking in South Africa, a crime that is claimed to take advantage of the most vulnerable members of society.
In a significant effort to address this critical issue, Deputy Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development Andries Nel recently launched Local Task Team Offices, aimed at bolstering anti-trafficking initiatives at ports of entry. This initiative is backed by a newly established policy framework designed to enhance the country’s collective response to trafficking.
Highlighting the impact of ongoing efforts, Nel pointed to the rescue of 234 identified trafficking victims over the past year. “These are 234 lives saved, and there are many more whose lives are affected by trafficking,” he emphasised.
The urgency of the situation is reflected in alarming global statistics; the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime reported a 25% increase in detected trafficking victims worldwide in 2024, with children making up 38% of those affected.
According to Nel, Africa has become a significant source and destination for trafficking, with South Africa serving as both a source and transit hub.
“As a source country, South Africans are trafficked domestically and internationally. As a transit country, traffickers use our borders to move victims from neighbouring countries to other destinations,” Nel stated.
He said in an encouraging development, South Africa’s efforts to combat trafficking have led to an upgrade in its status from Tier Two Watch List to Tier Two in the 2024 US Department of State’s Trafficking in Persons Report. In the current financial year alone, 32 new trafficking prosecutions have been initiated, with 67 ongoing cases involving 156 accused individuals currently before the courts.
The collaborative ethos of this fight was echoed by Jason Cogill, CEO of the National Freedom Network (NFN), during this year’s Human Trafficking Awareness Week, who emphasised the need for shared commitment: “To effectively combat human trafficking, strategic networking, collaboration, and partnership are needed. Together, we are stronger. Together, we can end trafficking.”
One story that highlights the gravity of the issue shared with the Saturday Star is of a young woman named Thandi, given to protect her identity from a small town in the Eastern Cape.
Thandi was lured by a false promise of a job in the city and found herself trapped in a brothel, her freedom violently taken. After several harrowing months, she was identified as a trafficking victim during a police raid and brought to safety.
"Those first weeks, I was so scared and broken. But the social workers and ladies at the safe house, they became like my sisters. They helped me see I still had a future," she shared her harrowing experience.
Rescue was just the beginning of Thandi's road to recovery. Through the NFN's network, she entered a specialised aftercare shelter where she received medical attention and trauma counselling to begin healing the invisible wounds of abuse.
Dr. Juliet Sambo, a lecturer at the Department of Social Work and Criminology at the University of Pretoria, shed further light on the complexities of trafficking.
Sambo notes that economic disparity, alongside inadequate law enforcement, creates an environment where organised crime thrives. “Official statistics are unreliable, obscuring the true scale of trafficking,” she explains, noting that women and children are disproportionately affected, making up 55.5% and 44.5% of victims, respectively.
The horrific case of six-year-old Joshlin Smith, who went missing in February 2024, starkly illustrates the crisis. Sambo warns that trafficking is intimately tied to other illicit activities, with the internet playing a pivotal role in recruitment and exploitation.
“Human trafficking persists in South Africa due to a combination of gender inequality and economic instability,” she argued.
anita.nkonki@inl.co.za
Saturday Star