Inhuman Existence

A future of a child born into hope is ruined by individuals. Individuals who seek to have the easy yet cruel way out of life. They shatter children’s dreams into pieces by the doors of shame they open to them. This is what the existence of human trafficking has done to innocent beings in South Africa.

It costs fifty thousand rand a head to move people between certain countries. Every month, thousands of children are smuggled by greedy opportunists and syndicates across South Africa’s international and provincial borders. Once they are on the other side of the border, they are sold as domestic workers for criminal activities or for hard labour on farms. The shocking truth is many of the children are young girls forced into prostitution. Unfortunately, as yet there is no law against human trafficking in South Africa. In June 2007, a human trafficking bill was drafted but until this year, 2011, it has not yet been passed.

Human trafficking is modern day slavery. It is the selling of people for exploitation. According to the International Organisation for Migration, human trafficking is the third most profitable crime in the world, following drug trafficking and weapon smuggling. Since there is no legislation criminalising human trafficking in South Africa, there are currently no official statistics available. South Africa is regarded as a source, destination and shipment country for human trafficking. This means that people are being trafficked within the country, be it from outside the country into South Africa or from South Africa to destinations abroad.

For the past seven years, girls aged between thirteen and sixteen have been rescued from brothels. I’m sure the age has decreased in time. Some of these children have been held captive since the tender age of eleven. Many of them have been made drug dependent and were used as prostituted. It saddens me to even write about this issue facing our democratic country because I am a young woman and it infuriates me to find that things like these are happening  around me.

The problem begins at home. In a situation where a child grows into poverty and realises that the world outside is better than the world at home will easily be lured into slavery. Children are very vulnerable little human beings. Adults are very influential big and matured human beings. The difference is that the matured one will tell the little one that there are better opportunities in life and because the little one has little or no knowledge of what is right and wrong, will fall in the trap. They will believe every word the matured one is telling them and yearn for the so called “better life”.

What is the definition of a better life? According to the mandate of the African National Congress, South Africa’s ruling party, a better life is free education, water, housing, more employment and eradication of poverty, just to name a few. This is their definition of a better life for all, which was the ANC logo in 2009. But, for a child who has lived in an impoverished home which is falling apart with no food, water and no education, a better life that the child hopes for is love, care, security, support and comfort. A better life is living in a stable home with a stable family, which gives the child a sense of belonging. If a child has lived the opposite life of better, when they are promised jobs, money, food, education and houses, then obviously that’s the direction of preference. But when all of these promises are lies, isn’t the life at home more than enough? The promise becomes worse than the situation at home.

The country is seen as a land of hope where all things are possible. It is seen as a rainbow nation that does not discriminate people because of the colour of their skin or where they come from. Therefore this means that all foreigners are welcome in the country. But how can we tell who the bad guys are? Various campaigns against child trafficking have been launched since 1996, however many challenges remain. These are:

·         The AIDS epidemic.

·         The persistence of harmful cultural practices.

·          The growth of organised crime.

·          The persistent loss of women and children to sexual abuse and forced labour.

All these areas require constant attention.

Lured by promise of work and new life in the big city, children as young as 13 are being brought into cities from rural areas to work. They are fed, but rarely paid. Many run away and alone in a strange city then take to the streets to join the city’s brigade of street kids. You will see these kids begging by the traffic lights. Traffickers lure them with promise of employment, marriage or even educational opportunities abroad.

The gloomy part is that these traffickers often lure children of poor families with promises of a better way of life. Victims who could be kidnapped or forced to follow their traffickers are subjected to threats of violence to ensure obedience. In this dysfunctional system, too many children have been lost and broken, only to be buried indifferently. Over and over again it is drilled into their heads that they have no one to turn to and no place to go. They are told that their parents, uncle or gogo sold them into slavery. This is sometimes untrue, though the excuse through which a girl is attained is usually totally separate from reality. Education, employment, learning a skill, money – these are excuses wielded like a fine sheen of rain after a drought, which is the drought alluding to the lack of food, opportunity, access to education, one or both parents missing, living with Aids and a grandmother who has too many stomachs to feed.

Human trafficking infringes the rights of women and children contained in The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996. “Every human being has certain fundamental rights which the government must uphold and respect”. These rights include the right to life, freedom from torture and freedom from slavery.

Hence human trafficking is a crime. It also infringes the rights contained in The Constitution, Chapter 2 of the Bill of Rights:

·         The Right to Human dignity where everyone has inherent dignity and the right to have their dignity respected and protected.

·         Freedom to be free from all forms of violence from either public or private sources and to security and control over their body.

·         Slavery and forced labour where no one may be subjected to slavery or forced labour.

Children’s rights are also protected by The Constitution. Every child has the right to be protected from exploitative labour practices; not to be required or permitted to perform work or provide services that are inappropriate for a person of that child’s age. When the above-mentioned rights are infringed in any form due to human trafficking then it makes the act a crime.

Human Trafficking is an inhuman existence. The duty lies with those who know the truth and are willing to change this country. South Africa needs to look back at the dream it once had to free its people and step to reality to start living that dream.

The prayer in Alan Paton’s autobiography is one that brings hope to Africans:

“God bless Africa

Guard her children

Guide her leaders

And give her peace

Amen.”