Premier Phumulo Masualle has sent out a high alert following increasing incidents of child abduction in the province.
The most recent incident happened in Whittlesea, where four children were abducted on Monday.
Masualle’s spokesman Sizwe Kupelo said police were also investigating the case of children who were found being trafficked in a truck near Nanaga en-route to Port Elizabeth recently.
“This issue of child trafficking is of serious concern in the province. It is a threat. We want to warn parents to be vigilant and not send their children to shopping malls and shops unattended,” said Kupelo.
“The same goes when your children are waiting for scholar transport. These two cases suggest that this is a serious issue in our province.”
A report on the two incidents was tabled by social development MEC Phumza Dyantyi at the cabinet lekgotla in Port Elizabeth, which ended on Wednesday.
“The warning comes after a truck believed to be from one of the SADC [South African Development Community] states was found with children aged between 14 and 21 who have since been taken to places of safety,” said Kupelo.
“Four other similar incidents were reported in Whittlesea.”
Kupelo said provincial authorities “are now working with law enforcement agencies” to try and get to the bottom of the matter.
“In some instances family members are believed to be colluding with local business people in trading their children in exchange for groceries.
“The premier has identified this as a serious threat to the safety of children in the province and urged parents and all members of society to be vigilant,” said Kupelo.
The incidents are so widespread, Kupelo said, that “even certain churches are being used as drop-off and pick-up points”.
In an attempt to curb further abductions, Kupelo said Masualle had also instructed provincial departments, particularly social development, to launch a massive awareness campaign to curb further child abductions in the province.
National coordinator for anti-human trafficking at the Salvation Army, Major Margaret Stafford, said the incident was the tip of the iceberg.
“SA does not collect data accurately as far as human trafficking is concerned so we only know of the cases that we know of but there are a lot of undocumented cases.”
She said 82 cases of human trafficking were reported in South Africa in the 2016-17 financial year.
“One of the cases includes 18 Malawian and Ghanaian children found in the back of a truck in Potchefstroom. They came via Mozambique.”
A source close to the investigation, who may not be named, said the driver was a Malawian national.
An Eastern Cape government official, who asked not to be named, said the vehicle came directly from Malawi via Mozambique.
“The Malawian driver’s job is apparently to fetch the children from Malawi and bring them into South Africa.”
The official said once the children were in the country, they were then sold as cheap labour.
The Dispatch is aware that on August 3, 21 Malawian minor children were smuggled into the country. They were rescued by the Eastern Cape traffic officers. The children were crammed into the back of a small truck, which was stopped on the N2 at Nanaga between Grahamstown and Port Elizabeth.
On August 9, Mzukisi Solani, provincial social development spokesperson, described the August 3 incident as the largest human trafficking bust in recent years.
Solani said the 20 boys and one girl were found with no legal documentation and could only speak their country’s languages Yao and Chichewa.
He said the driver had pleaded his innocence, telling police he was told to drop the children at Korsten in Port Elizabeth’s Northern Areas.
Hawks spokesperson Captain Anelisa Feni said the driver would appear in the Alexandria magistrate’s court on September 13 on a charge of corruption after he allegedly tried to bribe officials.
Solani said the Hawks were investigating the possibility that the children were victims of a larger international child trafficking ring.
He said his department, the Malawian embassy in Pretoria and the justice department were devising a plan to repatriate the children back to Malawi.
Solani said the minors were placed under the care of the department of social development in safe houses in East London and Port Elizabeth.
He said African languages experts were being brought in to interpret.
Solani said because the children practise the Islamic religion, members of the Muslim faith group were immediately brought in to advise on several practices including the preparation of a Halal diet for the children.
“It is very important to make sure that the children experience conditions similar to that of their own country, practise their own religion and eat their own food because frustrations could trigger psychological trauma.”
Solani said: “It is alleged that the driver of the vehicle informed the police that he was paid to transport the minors to a particular person in Korsten, Port Elizabeth.”
Dyantyi earlier told the Dispatch: “This alleged human trafficking ring is an indication that crimes of this nature occur a lot and could still be operating under the radar.
“If this one is proven true, it must be thoroughly investigated both here in South Africa and Malawi – and whoever is implicated must be prosecuted under the very harshest statutes.”..