Pretoria - The national Trafficking in Persons Task Team, led by the National Prosecution Authority (NPA), will this month embark on a drive to raise public awareness on human trafficking to prevent the scourge.
The first week of October is marked as National Trafficking in Persons Week by government, where annually, the NPA coordinates events aimed at raising public awareness on the scourge of human trafficking.
Trafficking in persons is a modern form of slavery, where traffickers use people’s vulnerability to lure them under false pretences and subject them to slavery.
Again, people are trafficked for sexual exploitation, forced marriages, labour exploitation, and forced labour, domestic servitude, street begging and removal of body parts.
The provincial inter-sectoral task teams will embark on awareness raising campaigns, public education and capacity building during this period.
The expected outcome is an informed society and increased public debate on issues around trafficking in persons. However, due to its hidden nature, trafficking is very difficult to quantify.
The number of victims assisted by the International Organisation on Migration (IOM) since 2004 shows that South Africans are being trafficked to other countries.
Traffickers also use the country as a transit destination and that people are trafficked to the country from other parts of the world including Eastern Europe and Asia.
IOM South Africa Chief of Mission Richard Ots said: “No country in the world is immune to the crime of Trafficking in Persons. It is a global phenomenon and the third largest profitable illegal trade after drugs and weapons. South Africa is a place of origin, transit and destination for victims.”
South Africa has demonstrated its commitment to global efforts of United Nations Member States to combat trafficking in persons by ratifying the “Protocol to Prevent Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children” on 20 February 2004.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) records that twelve out of fifteen SADC countries, including South Africa have enacted specific trafficking in person’s legislation in order to ensure domestic application of international obligations.
President Jacob Zuma South signed a comprehensive piece of legislation to address holistically the scourge of trafficking in persons in July 2013, but its implementation date has not been proclaimed.
Tim Steele, Officer-in-Charge, UNODC, Regional Office for Southern Africa said: “The momentum in the SADC region to bring criminal elements who perpetuate this heinous crime to book marks the beginning of a new era in the fight against transnational organised crime in the region”.
On 26 June this year, Allima Malimana was sentenced by Nongoma (KwaZulu-Natal) Regional Court to life imprisonment for trafficking for sexual exploitation.
While in January this year, Mvumeleni Jezile was sentenced to 22 years by the Wynberg Regional Court for trafficking for forced marriage. - SAnews.gov.za
