essay about human trafficking in south africa

• Crisis / Human Rights

The Reality of Human trafficking in South Africa

by Jessica Dewhurst · Published August 22, 2017 · Updated January 30, 2018

What is the nature of human trafficking in South Africa, who is involved in it and where do trafficked people come from? And what can we do to fight this modern slavery? JESSICA DEWHURST looks at answers to these questions.

The organisation which I co-founded and currently direct, the Edmund Rice Justice Desk, offers its support, expertise, training and educational materials to groups worldwide and also serves as an advisor to the United Nations’ Economic and Social Council.

We focus on educating, advocating and equipping youth, vulnerable groups, civil society, and governments across South/Central Africa in human rights, justice and advocacy. We work primarily in township areas and vulnerable communities, empowering and equipping communities to lead their own change since they have the best solutions to their own problems.

Our organisation has four departments, 12 key projects, and has trained and equipped thousands of men, women and children to be advocates of hope and change in their communities.

In the course of our work we have come across many reports of human trafficking which made me commit to a masters thesis to explore the challenges faced by role-players in the prevention of human trafficking, especially youth trafficking.

Human trafficking in SA

The forms of human trafficking found in South Africa include sex trafficking, child labour, domestic servitude, organ smuggling, child-brides (ukuthwala), illegal child adoptions, debt-bondage, forced surrogacy, and the use of body parts for muti.

South Africa remains a primary source, destination, and transit country for human trafficking. Human trafficking occurs internally between our provinces, as well as externally across our South African borders.

Internally, victims are targeted from economically poorer provinces such as the Eastern Cape, the Northern Cape, and the Free State and brought to cities such as Durban, Johannesburg and Cape Town.

Externally, across borders, victims are targeted from countries with regions bedevilled by their own socio-economic and political problems. In Africa such countries include Nigeria, Malawi, Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Namibia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Apart from Africa, victims are also trafficked from the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Russia, Ukraine, Cambodia, the Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, China, and even parts of the United States.

The Demand for People

The demand for human trafficking is channelled through the tourism industry, certain cultural and religious practices, the sex trade, and the drug trade.

The demand comes from both high-end and low-end establishments. Highly sophisticated syndicates with networks into local communities are able to target a large number of victims, lower their prices significantly and access both white-collar and blue-collar clients with little fear of prosecution. Thus this situation substantially increases both demand and supply.

With regard to the risk profile of victims being trafficked, my study found that women with low education, living in rural or economically poor communities, who are either unemployed or seeking work, within the age bracket of child and youth, are among the most vulnerable.

However, it is important to note that many who do not fit this profile have also been targeted.

The profile of a trafficker can take many different forms in South Africa. In some cases, people are trafficked by their friends, families, and community members, and may appear to be an average South African citizen.

A profile of the trafficker can be identified as mostly male, between the ages of 20 and 40, foreign or South African, well-dressed, and persuasive. Such traffickers may be businessmen, job-recruiters, romantic interests and even friends.

Men are not necessarily the only traffickers since women have also been known to traffic men, women and children.

Causes of human trafficking

The main causes of human trafficking include South Africa’s socio-political and economic context with its high levels of poverty, inequality and unemployment, as well as the low levels or lack of education.

Corruption in government departments, within law enforcement units and border-crossing patrols also plays a role in hindering initiatives to prevent trafficking.

Furthermore, South Africa’s reliable Internet, phone lines and banking systems offer syndicates a perfect place to set up their trafficking businesses.

South Africa’s location makes it easy to travel to other countries, or to travel from other countries to South Africa via boats, planes or our roads.

The culture of violence in South Africa, which includes high levels of gender-based violence, domestic abuse, substance abuse, murder and rape, have also resulted in an environment that is prone to the exploitation of others.

Finally, the legacy of apartheid and patriarchy, together with certain religious and cultural practices such as muti and ukuthwala have all lead to gross human rights violations especially against women and children. We live in a society that does not really value the human person, leading to this commodification of the human body, this modern form of slavery.

This should urge all of us to turn to our national patroness, Our Lady Assumed Into Heaven, to intercede on behalf of all victims and to help us to find ways to stop this scourge.

Our patroness is our model of human dignity.

Challenges to Prevention

Stakeholders in the prevention of trafficking face major challenges. These include:

– A lack of awareness or denial from South Africans regarding human trafficking, which has resulted in deficient support for counter-trafficking initiatives, as well as leading to the greater exposure of our people to traffickers who exploit those seeking work, romantic partners, study and travel opportunities and those wanting a better life for themselves.

– The lack of adequate information about the human trafficking problem which addresses the many educational levels and languages in our country.

– The lack of funding/government support for NGOs, law enforcement and government departments which has resulted in poorly resourced prevention efforts with very few rehabilitation services.

– Key personnel in the NGO sector as well as law enforcement agencies are under-resourced, overworked, under-represented, and under-trained. The prevention of human trafficking calls for specialised training and available resources.

Fragmented Support

– The fragmentation of services that do exist does little to win the battle against human trafficking. Greater coordination among NGOs and other stakeholders is needed.

– The lack of designated safe houses for trafficked victims — many victims find themselves housed in multi-purpose shelters with other victims of domestic and alcohol abuse.  Trafficked victims need specialised support services.

– Gaps in the legal services offered to trafficked victims: A number of prosecutors are not familiar with South Africa’s new human trafficking law. The length of trials is far too long, and often exposes survivors to added trauma during the prosecution period.

– Human trafficking syndicates continue to thrive in South Africa. They are well-funded, organised, protected and ruthless. Syndicates are known to threaten the lives of prosecutors, victims and their families, community members, law enforcement agencies, NGOs and government members, which results in people being less likely to take a stand against them. They also legally rent property, hire staff and have legal representatives on hand to ensure that law enforcement agencies are unable to enter their properties or interview their staff.

Let’s Use Innovative strategies

In order to truly combat human trafficking, it is vital that the South African government, NGOs and other key stakeholders develop innovative prevention strategies.

Such strategies could include awareness-raising in parishes, schools, communities, youth and other vulnerable groups. Specialised training should be given to all those working at places where human trafficking is most likely to occur — such as poor communities, schools, airport staff, our ports, and border control staff.

Besides greater collaboration among all those attempting to prevent human trafficking, social media could be effectively used to raise the alarm where suspected trafficking may be taking place and a special helpline should be set up.

NGOs and other agencies, as well as individuals, must become familiar with the Trafficking of Persons Act.

Finally, we know that the prevention of trafficking cannot be successful unless we work towards changing the conditions that leave people vulnerable and open to abuse.

Stronger penalties should be put in place for those engaging in human trafficking.

Raise the Alarm

The Church can do much through disseminating information and creating a greater awareness of this form of human bondage.

No-one from our parishes or communities should fall prey to these traffickers. After all we are our brother’s and sister’s keepers.

The US anthropologist Margaret Mead once said: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

I believe that human trafficking can be stopped if we work and plan together!

Jessica Dewhurst is the award-winning co-founder of The Edmund Rice Justice Desk, a human rights organisation which operates in South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. An alumna of Christian Brothers’ College St John’s in Cape Town, she holds various qualifications from the University of Cape Town, the University of Cambridge and the United Nations in Geneva.

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Human trafficking in South Africa: an elusive statistical nightmare

Lecturer in Police Practice, University of South Africa

Disclosure statement

Marcel van der Watt is affiliated with the National Freedom Network (NFN) and the Global Resource Epicenter Against human Trafficking (GREAT)

University of South Africa provides funding as a partner of The Conversation AFRICA.

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Human trafficking is a global crime affecting countless victims around the world. Yet its actual scope remains a mystery. The methodologies used to arrive at estimates about its nature and extent have been widely criticised as flawed or lacking in scientific rigour.

In South Africa, claims by anti-trafficking campaigners and NGOs include that 30,000 children are trafficked into the country annually as part of the sex trade. The same figure has been used by the Department of Home Affairs to justify recently introduced visa regulations aimed at combating child trafficking.

But this number has been discredited as “exaggerated and unsubstantiated” .

Human trafficking has become a focus of attention in the country following the introduction of the onerous and controversial visa requirements. In addition, a new act aimed at preventing trafficking is expected to be operational in the next few weeks. It defines trafficking to include the recruitment, transportation, sale or harbour of people by means of force, deceit, the abuse of vulnerability and the abuse of power for exploitation.

A statistical dilemma

But the absence of reliable statistics means that there is no clarity on just how big the problem is.

Inflated guesstimates continue to be used by those trying to stop the crime. But they create a credibility dilemma, detract from a constructive conversation and frustrate efforts to understand the multi-layered realities of the problem.

Notwithstanding the lack of reliable numbers, the problem is prevalent in South Africa. The number of cases being reported suggests it is on the increase . The situation may in fact be far more chronic and severe than we know.

It is well documented that South Africa is a source, transit and destination country for human trafficking. This is backed up by a forthcoming book, Long Walk to Nowhere: Forced Migration, Exploitation and Human Trafficking in South Africa, by social scientist Philip Frankel. He dismisses sceptics and exposes some of the unexplored and undocumented crevices in the mining and labour sector suggestive of human trafficking.

My ongoing research draws on the experiences of role-players in counter-human trafficking. These include all the responding agencies including civil society, survivors and ex-perpetrators.

Preliminary themes highlight multiple accounts of undocumented cases, direct and indirect complicity by political elites and bureaucratic officials, the paucity of border controls, corruption and a culture of impunity.

This toxic concoction makes human trafficking an attractive business with high returns and low risk. For example, trafficking in persons for sexual exploitation is the most documented type of trafficking, locally and internationally. Yet none of the international syndicates dominating the sex trade have ever been successfully prosecuted in South Africa.

A hidden and subversive crime

Society’s justifiable preoccupation with numbers to understand the scope of the problem does little to promote understanding of the complex issues associated with human trafficking.

Measures to combat the trade cannot be divorced from numerous other structural issues. These include racism, poverty, unemployment, education and inequality – all of which interpenetrate at some point.

The problem is further compounded by the absence of an official database on human trafficking. There are also no crime codes in the police service which capture the complexities of each reported incident. Associated human trafficking offences are still subsumed into crimes such rape, sexual assault, kidnapping, abduction and domestic violence. Much of this is due to an inability by some police officials or investigators to positively identify trafficking cases.

Many labour and sex trafficking victims don’t even know they are victims of a crime. Others, mostly children, are exploited in a distorted net of “culture” . These include aberrant forms of ukuthwala – meaning “to carry” in isiXhosa and isiZulu – a customary practice used to bypass extensive and lengthy marriage rituals.

Awareness about human trafficking across all sectors of society remains low. In addition, perceptions are often fuelled by skewed media representations. Hollywood movies like Taken and dramatic elements such as the use of force, kidnapping, and the brutality of perpetrators dominate discourses.

Misinformation is further fuelled by the fact that significant elements such as deceit, fraud, grooming, manipulation and trauma bonding often go unreported.

The possible link between missing persons and human trafficking also begs to be interrogated. In February 2014, the South African Police Services’ Missing Persons Bureau reported that 2641 adults and 754 children remain missing from cases reported between 2011 and 2013, a significant number for a mere two years.

Angie Motaung of Bana Ba Kae (“where are the children”), an NGO that works to alleviate the plight of children in poor communities in Pretoria, South Africa’s capital city, says that “there could be as many as 1000 children missing from homes across the city”.

Quantitative and qualitative data

Instead of trying to quantify the problem in terms of the number of human trafficking victims, the question we should be asking is: which communities are most vulnerable to human trafficking?

This would open the door to finding connections between measurable quantities on the one hand and qualities which cannot be counted but should be mapped on the other. Such a connection is crucial to understand the configuration of relationships in which the problem of human trafficking is rooted.

The hidden nature of the crime requires unconventional thinking and flexible methodologies to scope the problem. Every member of society should be empowered to be a co-participant in both quantitative and qualitative data collection. Community based participatory research methods could be used to do so. This would help find significant themes in the seemingly insignificant events of everyday life which may suggest the presence of “hidden transcripts” related to human trafficking.

Human trafficking presents a confluence of complexities. This denies us the convenience of an unambiguous and quantified understanding. The key lies in harnessing the complexity of the problem and acknowledging its deep and dense sociological abyss.

We need to redefine success in a way that is sensitive to the structural limitations of any given context. By doing so we may move towards a more even-handed understanding of the scope, nature and extent of human trafficking. It may also be more suitable to framing more appropriate policy and enforcement responses.

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South Africa launches Prevention and Combating of Trafficking in Persons National Policy Framework

Pretoria, South Africa - 2 May 2019 - The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development launched, in collaboration with UNODC and under the framework of the Global Action against Trafficking in Persons and Smuggling of Migrants ( GLO.ACT ), on 25 April 2019 the Prevention and Combating of Trafficking in Persons National Policy Framework (NPF). The NPF seeks to ensure all government departments and other engaged stakeholders from civil society are collectively guided in the implementation of anti-trafficking responses and of their statutory responsibilities. In particular, the NPF intends to support the implementation of the Prevention and Combating of Trafficking in Persons, 2013 (Act No. 7 of 2013), hereinafter referred to as the Act,which aims to ensure that the criminal justice system is effective in prosecuting criminals and protects the victims of Trafficking in Persons (TIP), promoting a cooperative and aligned response among all government departments, as well as with civil society organizations engaged in assisting and supporting TIP victims. As a strategic planning tool, the NPF is also key to secure political and financial support and to ensure rational use of resources and effective responses.

South Africa is a primary destination for trafficked persons in the Southern African region and within Africa at large. It is also an origin and transit country for: trafficking towards Europe and North America. Trafficking affects women, men and children exploited in forced labour, commercial sex, forced begging and forced criminality. Foreign male forced labour victims have also been detected on fishing vessels in South Africa's territorial waters. Internally, girls are trafficked from rural to urban areas for sexual exploitation and domestic servitude, while boys are forced to work in street vending, begging, agriculture, mining, and criminal activities.

The NFP is based on a set of principles and approaches in line with constitutional imperatives, national legislation and international standards that all anti-trafficking stakeholders and service providers in South Africa shall employ during all steps of its implementation. These principles are as follows:

• Human rights / victim centered approach
• Multi-disciplinary approach
• Government ownership
• Civil society participation
• Gender sensitive approach
• Sustainability

Speaking during the launch, Deputy Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Hon. John Jeffery said, "Trafficking in Persons is by no means a recent phenomenon. It is rooted in South Africa's historical landscape and is fundamentally enabled by the country's deep structural inequalities. A systemic response and culture shift is needed - one that radically restrains the demand for cheap labour and sex, and severs any hint of corruption and compromise". He further said, "We are confident that the legislation, which came into operation in August 2015, along with the National Policy Framework that we are launching today, will bring us a step closer to this much-needed systemic response".

The objectives of the NPF are as follows:

• To establish a coordinated and cooperative institutional anti-trafficking framework involving all relevant stakeholders;
• To establish an adequate legal and regulatory framework to protect victims and to counter human trafficking;
• To secure resources necessary to fully implement the NPF;
• To improve continuously anti-trafficking responses adjusting them as needed in time;
• To raise public awareness and prevent human trafficking;
• To reduce vulnerability to human trafficking and re-trafficking;
• To improve knowledge on human trafficking;
• To ensure the early identification of potential and presumed trafficked persons,
• To ensure that victims of trafficking have access to comprehensive assistance programmes.

Participants included the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, members of National Inter-Sectorial Committee on Trafficking in Persons, members of the Provincial Trafficking in Persons Task Team, civil society organizations, various members of the Diplomatic Corps in South Africa, UNODC and GLO.ACT implementing partners IOM and UNICEF.

The Global Action to Prevent and Address Trafficking in Persons and the Smuggling of Migrants (GLO.ACT) is a four-year (2015-2019), €11 million joint initiative by the European Union (EU) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The project is being implemented in partnership with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). GLO.ACT aims to provide assistance to governmental authorities and civil society organizations across 13 strategically selected countries: Belarus, Brazil, Colombia, Egypt, Kyrgyz Republic, Lao PDR, Mali, Morocco, Nepal, Niger, Pakistan, South Africa, Ukraine.  GLO.ACT works with the 13 countries to plan and implement strategic national counter-trafficking and counter smuggling efforts through a prevention, protection, prosecution, and partnerships approach. It supports the development of more effective responses to trafficking and smuggling, including providing assistance to victims of trafficking and vulnerable migrants through the strengthening of identification, referral, and direct support mechanisms.

For more information, please contact:

Banele Kunene, National Project Officer,

[email protected]

Twitter: @glo_act

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Hsrc released a new study on human trafficking in south africa.

Human Sciences Research Council

Pretoria, Monday, 26 June 2023 –The Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) has published a new study on human trafficking in South Africa, which is now available nationwide.

The author, Prof Philip Frankel, has worked on trafficking issues for over a decade and also authored the only other book on the subject in South Africa, ‘ Long Walk to Nowhere: Human Trafficking in Post-Mandela South Africa ‘, which came out in 2017.

The new book, Human Trafficking in South Africa, is an update of the earlier work. It will be launched on Thursday, 29 June 2023.

The new book goes beyond anything ever written in its exploration of the various forms of trafficking. Thus, chapters on sex, labour and child trafficking are supplemented by material on child organ trafficking for muti murder, illegal adoption and ‘baby farming’ of children for exploitation by foster parents.

The section on sex trafficking includes a discussion of current initiatives to decriminalise all forms of sex work. Labour trafficking is especially emphasised because it pervades complex, long and vulnerable supply chains in all sectors of the economy, mining, agriculture, industry and tourism.

Since 2017, a national policy framework (NFP) to implement South Africa’s comprehensive national law – the Prevention and Combating of Trafficking in Persons (PACOTIP) – has been established. Readers can expect unprecedented material on the mechanics of the NFP, especially the provincial structures set up to deal with trafficking at provincial level.

Prof Frankel notes that the whole system is an abject failure because of lack of finance, poor coordination, and selective participation by government departments and the South African Police Service (SAPS). Many of these problems reflect similar dysfunctions in mitigating human trafficking in countries in the surrounding sub-continent.

“Successful prosecution of traffickers is minimal despite a possible 250,000 victims in South Africa alone. There is rampant corruption in the SAPS and other departments such as the Department of Home Affairs, some of whose senior personnel are complicit with perpetrators in sophisticated transnational cartels,” says Frankel. He adds that public consciousness about trafficking is also limited, so many gut-wrenching trafficking crimes go unreported and uncounted.

“Trafficking has increased precipitously in the wake of COVID-19 and loadshedding to unprecedented levels and, according to international barometers, our counter-trafficking initiatives are stalled or losing ground.

“Confronting the challenge at this point requires a multi-dimensional initiative that includes more training and accountability in the criminal justice system, and widespread awareness training among key government and civil society stakeholders.

“This includes teachers, learners, social workers and psychologists as well as corporate activity to monitor and report on supply chains particularly vulnerable to trafficked labour. Current initiatives by banks and financial services to curb money laundering by trafficking cartels should also be extended throughout the financial services sector,” says Prof Frankel.

Details of the launch

Date:                 29 June 2023

Time:                 18:00 for 18:30

Venue:              Exclusive Books store Rosebank, Shop C331 & C332, The Mall of Rosebank 117 Oxford, Rosebank, Johannesburg, 2196

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About the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC)

The HSRC was established in 1968 as South Africa’s statutory research agency and has grown to become the largest dedicated research institute in the social sciences and humanities on the African continent, doing cutting-edge public research in areas that are crucial to development.

Our mandate is to inform the effective formulation and monitoring of government policy; to evaluate policy implementation; to stimulate public debate through the effective dissemination of research-based data and fact-based research results; to foster research collaboration; and to help build research capacity and infrastructure for the human sciences.

The Council conducts large-scale, policy-relevant, social-scientific research for public sector users, non-governmental organisations and international development agencies. Research activities and structures are closely aligned with South Africa’s national development priorities.

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Research Into the Nature and Scope of Trafficking in Persons in South Africa: Prevalence Insights into the Criminal Justice System and Relevant Reporting Mechanisms

 Author: Dr. Marcel Van der Watt International Consultant & Research Fellow: Free State Centre for Human Rights, University of the Free State, South Africa

 Year Published: 2023

 Link to Resource: Read More

Executive Summary

Khulisa Management Services (Khulisa), in partnership with the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), was contracted in May 2020 to conduct research on Trafficking in Persons (TIP) in South Africa. The contractual mechanism is a Buy-In Agreement: 7200AA18CA00009 (LASER) with USAID/Southern Africa and USAID/LAB/CDR in collaboration with the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI), South Africa through Purdue University/LASER PULSE. The Buy-in Agreement objective is to collect robust and empirically-based qualitative and quantitative data to reveal the nature and magnitude of TIP in South Africa. This research will support efforts to have the data play a more prominent role in public-policy debates, particularly given the hidden and subversive nature of TIP.

Purpose of the Report

The overarching aim of this report was to explore available data and/or lived experiences related to incidents of TIP in South Africa that overlapped, connected with, and/or were reported to any aspect of South Africa’s Criminal Justice System. Given the lack of a centralized database on South African TIP data, this mosaic of evidence was deemed necessary for relevant insights into the nature and prevalence of TIP in South Africa. The report begins by exploring the prevailing ‘evidence’ dissonance regarding TIP in South Africa, particularly as it relates to persistent claims of ‘little evidence’ and the framing of child trafficking and sex trafficking as ‘myth’ in some research. The framework of the Palermo Trafficking Protocol and the Prevention and Combating of Trafficking in Persons Act (PACOTIP) Act 7 of 2013 was employed as the yardstick to understand the basis of this skepticism towards South Africa’s TIP phenomenon, and the arguments to support these claims are questioned. This analysis is then positioned as the background to this study and juxtaposed with evidence collected in this research. On the one end of the spectrum, this includes actual cases or information containing reasonable grounds to infer that a TIP crime or threat exists, and that was reported by civil society organizations to either the South African Police Service (SAPS) or formalized TIP Task Teams (Provincial or National) for further investigations. On the other end, the data includes ongoing and successfully prosecuted TIP cases in South African courts. A cursory, yet insightful analysis of TIP reporting in the media is also explored. The data collected was considered essential as it underwent a continuum of review iterations by a range of actors to establish whether there are reasonable grounds to believe that a case of TIP was perpetrated or not. An established TIP legal framework was used to reach these conclusions. Finally, the data and perspectives originated from sources that are operationally involved in the investigation, prosecution and adjudication of cases, frontline responses to calls for service, and victim-centric interventions and support services. They were therefore able to provide a first-hand account and an informed interpretation of the data.

Research Questions

The research questions relevant to this study are:

• What is the scope of trafficking, and how does it manifest in South Africa?
• What are the experiences of TIP victims, and is policy shaped to reflect their voices?
• What past and present factors have constrained both available data and an understanding of TIP prevalence in South Africa?
• Who are the role-players involved in TIP, and is the response to counter-trafficking appropriate? In what ways does the criminal justice system require improvement to better manage trafficking crimes?
• What can be learnt from programs to strengthen the response?

What are the key pathways to impact addressing TIP in South Africa? What are the gaps and recommendations?

Key Finding

The evidence convincingly shows that South Africa is a source, transit, and destination country for TIP and that both victims and perpetrators are significantly undercounted in both research and practice. Sex trafficking continues to make up the overwhelming majority1 of detected, reported, and prosecuted TIP cases, while labor trafficking prosecutions, similar to trends observed internationally, remain limited. The number of ongoing- and successful TIP prosecutions by the Government of South Africa is disproportionately low when compared to calls for response services and data from civil society, available police statistics, media coverage, and practitioner perceptions related to the nature and prevalence of the phenomenon in South Africa. Evidence shows that TIP is fueled by several factors. This includes South Africa’s relentless structural inequalities, unconstrained consumer-level demand for commercial sex and forced labor, corruption and widespread indifference, and several crippling response deficiencies. Historical and ongoing research claims that TIP is “rarely encountered” and that there is “little evidence of sex trafficking” are misleading, obfuscate the day-to-day realities of adult and child trafficking victims, and fail to employ the legally binding definition of the PACOTIP Act in research. Methodological problems include the unjustifiable use of truncated definitions and conceptualizations of TIP, the undercounting of TIP victims, and the rationalization of harm. The study concludes that the cumulative effect of the aforementioned problems significantly constrains a forthright assessment of the nature and prevalence of TIP in South Africa and results in disconnected claims and harm rationalizations that are incongruent with existing laws and, chiefly, incongruent with the evidence presented in this study. The empirical basis in this research includes both quantitative insights and qualitative themes from the following data points:

• Reporting by three national TIP Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) who have a presence on the provincial and national TIP Task Teams, and one national NGO that works in the area of missing persons
• Available statistics by the SAPS for the period 2007 to 2021
• Ongoing TIP prosecutions in South African Courts during 2021
• Successfully prosecuted TIP Cases in South African Courts for the period 2007 to 2022

When considered as a ‘mosaic of evidence’ and a ‘constellation of circumstances’, the evidence in this study not only accentuate the consistency and coherency of previous TIP research themes (including reports, journal articles, doctoral studies, masters studies, evidence-based media reports, and lived experience survivor autobiographies) but presents a more nuanced perspective on the nature and prevalence of TIP in South Africa. Evidence that hitherto has not been documented is introduced, and recommendations are made for criminal justice practitioners, policy-makers, institutional review boards, government data management, the media, communications and messaging strategy, local and international research funders, counter-corruption, and consumer-level demand reduction for commercial sex and forced labor.

Read or download full report here.

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2023 Trafficking in Persons Report: South Africa

• SOUTH AFRICA (Tier 2 Watch List)

The Government of South Africa does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so.  These efforts included increasing investigations and convictions of traffickers; investigating and prosecuting some allegedly complicit government officials; coordinating with foreign governments on trafficking investigations and repatriation of victims; increasing coordinated labor inspections to investigate forced labor; adopting an anti-trafficking NAP; accrediting two shelters; and expanding awareness-raising activities.  However, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts compared with the previous reporting period, even considering the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, if any, on its anti-trafficking capacity.  While the government finalized and approved the implementation regulations to operationalize the Prevention and Combating of Trafficking in Persons ( PACOTIP) Act’s immigration provisions, the regulations awaited final adoption and were not yet in effect at the end of the reporting period.   Agencies responsible for identifying, referring, and certifying trafficking victims lacked coordination, and knowledge gaps in understanding human trafficking and referral SOPs, likely hindered overall protection efforts.  Law enforcement continued to lack the necessary capacity and training to effectively identify and refer trafficking victims to care.  The government inappropriately penalized victims solely for offenses committed as a direct result of being trafficked, including by detaining potential trafficking victims , even after identification as such by government officials, instead of referring them to care.   Reports of low-level official complicity in trafficking crimes persisted.   Because the government has devoted sufficient resources to a written plan that, if implemented, would constitute significant efforts to meet the minimum standards, South Africa was granted a waiver per the Trafficking Victims Protection Act from an otherwise required downgrade to Tier 3.  Therefore South Africa remained on Tier 2 Watch List for the third consecutive year.

• PRIORITIZED RECOMMENDATIONS:
• Ensure victims are not inappropriately penalized solely for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked.
• Increase efforts to investigate, prosecute, and convict officials complicit in trafficking crimes and traffickers within organized crime syndicates, including cases of online exploitation.
• Promulgate and implement the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) immigration provisions in chapters 3 and 7 of PACOTIP, including sections 15, 16, and 31(2)(b)(ii) to ensure the issuance of appropriate immigration status and identification documents for trafficking victims.
• Increase training for South African Police Service (SAPS) officers on trauma-informed interviewing techniques as well as victim identification and referral SOPs, and train specialized investigators on human trafficking investigations and computer forensics to investigate online exploitation.
• Increase resources and training for front-line responders to effectively use victim identification and referral SOPs to identify trafficking victims, including by screening for trafficking indicators among vulnerable populations, such as individuals engaging in commercial sex, children, LGBTQI+ persons, refugees, migrants, and Cuban medical workers, and systematically refer trafficking victims to care.
• Increase collaboration between NICTIP, Provincial Task Teams (PTTs), and civil society to integrate referral and response systems and include all stakeholders, including survivors.
• Implement policies to remove the requirement for victims to participate in investigations and prosecutions in order to be formally identified and receive trafficking victim status.
• Formalize a confidential reporting mechanism for civil society to safely report allegations of official corruption and complicity in trafficking crimes directly to the government for vigorous investigation.
• Accredit or establish additional shelters to accommodate the needs of male, LGBTQI+, and child trafficking victims.
• Implement and consistently enforce strong regulations and oversight of labor recruitment companies, including by holding fraudulent labor recruiters criminally accountable.
• Increase outreach and awareness efforts to vulnerable populations, especially for those engaging in commercial sex, in rural and agricultural communities, and foreign migrants.
• PROSECUTION

The government maintained anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts.  PACOTIP criminalized sex trafficking and labor trafficking and prescribed penalties of up to life imprisonment, a fine of up to 100 million South African rand ($5.9 million), or both.  The penalties were sufficiently stringent and, with respect to sex trafficking, commensurate with those for other serious crimes, such as rape.  The implementing regulations for PACOTIP’s immigration provisions found in sections 15, 16, and 31(2)(b)(ii) were finalized and approved by the Minister of Home Affairs, but not yet formally adopted by parliament and promulgated; therefore, critical sections of the act remained inactive for the tenth consecutive year.  The Criminal Law (Sexual Offenses and related matters) Amendment Act of 2007 (CLAA) also criminalized the sex trafficking of children and adults and prescribed penalties of up to life in prison.  The Basic Conditions of Employment Act of 1997 (BCEA), amended in 2014, criminalized forced labor and prescribed maximum penalties of three to six years’ imprisonment.  In addition, the Children’s Amendment Act of 2005 prescribed penalties of five years to life imprisonment or fines for the use, procurement, or offer of a child for slavery, commercial sexual exploitation, or to commit crimes.  Prosecutors sometimes relied on the Prevention of Organized Crime Act of 1998, in combination with CLAA, which added additional charges – such as money laundering, racketeering, or criminal gang activity – and increased penalties of convicted defendants.

The Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI, or Hawks), a division of SAPS, initiated 29 trafficking case investigations – 19 for sex trafficking, eight for labor trafficking, and two for unspecified forms of trafficking – and continued 35 case investigations from previous reporting periods.  This compared with initiating 18 case investigations in the previous reporting period.  The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) initiated 15 prosecutions of 30 suspects and continued 28 prosecutions of 74 suspects from prior reporting periods, compared with nine prosecutions with 16 suspects during the previous reporting period.  The government convicted 14 traffickers in eight cases, including two forced labor cases, under trafficking or immigration-related charges, compared with convicting 11 traffickers in the previous reporting period.  Judges sentenced traffickers from 15 years to life imprisonment.  The government reported two convictions were upheld on appeal and seven individuals were acquitted, which were appealed by the government and remained ongoing.  The government initiated prosecutions of two South African traffickers for forced labor in agriculture; their associates, two Mozambican recruiters, fraudulently recruited and transported 39 victims, including children, from Mozambique and were convicted for illegal entry, which included a sentence of three months’ imprisonment and a fine.  The case remained ongoing.

The government recognized official complicity as a key challenge in addressing all transnational crime, including human trafficking, and investigated and prosecuted government officials during the reporting period.  The government prosecuted the co-defendant of an acting judge, who was deceased before criminal proceedings began, for multiple trafficking-related crimes.  The government charged three SAPS officers for extorting potential trafficking victims in a case reported in 2021; the case remained ongoing.  Two NPA prosecutors were implicated in a potential corruption scheme for obstructing efforts to hold a high-profile, public figure accountable for alleged child sex trafficking over several years; the government did not report any actions taken against the prosecutors.  Observers and government officials continued to report widespread corruption particularly among DHA, the Department of Social Development (DSD), SAPS, and DPCI.  Observers reported high-level law enforcement officials obstructed trafficking investigations.  DHA arrested 22 immigration officials for corruption related to facilitating illegal entry, transportation, and harboring of foreign nationals.  Observers also reported in exchange for bribes, lower-level officials warned traffickers of operations by law enforcement, immigration officials facilitated undocumented entry for traffickers at land and air border points, and DSD returned survivors to traffickers instead of referring them to care.  Observers reported some SAPS officers were unwilling to investigate cases, particularly of children forced to engage in street vending or begging, and relied on NGOs to obtain victims’ statements and build cases.  Observers reported cases of sex trafficking of Basotho women from Lesotho in South African brothels; however, due to alleged official complicity of both Basotho and South African officials linked to the brothels, they continued to operate with impunity.  Given mistrust in law enforcement, civil society reported the need for a trusted, high-level government contact to receive reports of officials complicit in human trafficking crimes to facilitate investigations and to avoid retribution.  The government reported the existence of several secure mechanisms to report corruption, but did not specify if any were sensitive to the specific considerations of human trafficking crimes.

Law enforcement agencies lacked sufficient resources and training to adequately and appropriately investigate all reported trafficking cases.  SAPS officers sometimes conflated GBV and human trafficking crimes.  Observers reported law enforcement had insufficient training in trauma-informed interviewing and victim care, resulting in cases of DPCI investigators retraumatizing victims or not taking victims’ statements.  The lack of clarity on case status, low prospect of success, and sometimes years-long delays in cases dissuaded some victims from participating in trials.  DPCI had a national anti-trafficking coordinator, four investigators to provide operational support, and provincial anti-trafficking coordinators in all nine districts; however, there were no officers or staff solely dedicated to anti-trafficking efforts.  SAPS created an anti-trafficking unit within its General Detectives section, which primarily handled trafficking crimes involving adult victims.  The SAPS family, child, and sexual offense unit handled trafficking crimes involving children.  Observers reported SAPS did not collaborate with civil society and were reportedly slow to investigate leads generated by other law enforcement agencies.  Media reports accused NPA of not proceeding with victims’ cases in prior years because of discrimination due to disabilities or race.

With support from an international organization, the government trained more than 450 frontline law enforcement officers in Gauteng, Western Cape, and Eastern Cape provinces.  An international organization supported DPCI to conduct a train-the-trainer training for 16 DPCI and SAPS officers to educate other officers on the SAPS trafficking SOPs.  An international organization also supported NPA to train 100 prosecutors from eight provinces in three trainings.  The government signed memoranda of understanding with the Governments of Mozambique, Botswana, Zambia, and Thailand for intelligence sharing and coordinating victim repatriations.  The government coordinated with the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to investigate potential trafficking of DRC migrants residing in the country.  SAPS coordinated with the Lesotho Mounted Police Service on three cross-border investigations; however, SAPS officers sometimes did not effectively communicate with their counterparts.

The government made uneven protection efforts.  The government identified and referred 74 trafficking victims to care, including 42 labor trafficking victims, 23 sex trafficking victims, and nine victims of unspecified forms of trafficking, compared with identifying 83 victims and referring 74 victims to care in the previous reporting period.  Of the 74 trafficking victims identified, 43 were foreign victims.  NGOs identified and referred to care an additional 52 trafficking victims and identified 383 potential victims through transit monitoring.  Observers reported official statistics did not reflect the scope of trafficking, since institutional problems and lack of proactive screening resulted in some victims remaining unidentified by the government.  Conflation between GBV and human trafficking also led to the misidentification of victims.

In partnership with international organizations, the government trained social workers on victim identification, reporting, and referrals, particularly focused on combating online abuse and exploitation.  Most agencies, including SAPS, DSD, NPA, and the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development (DOJCD), used SOPs adapted for each agency to identify and refer trafficking victims to care, developed in accordance with PACOTIP and support from an international organization; however, agencies and provinces implemented the SOPs inconsistently.  Authorities inappropriately penalized victims of trafficking for offenses committed as a direct result of being trafficked, including for immigration offenses.  As reported by multiple sources, trafficking victims were detained and deported after identification as trafficking victims and the government did not screen detained migrants for trafficking.  During the reporting period, the government deported more than 800 Basotho, which included some trafficking victims.  The government reportedly arrested and charged 52 undocumented migrants working in a single factory, including Malawians, Zimbabweans, and People’s Republic of China (PRC) nationals, including some potential trafficking victims, for immigration violations; allegedly, these potential victims were charged and faced deportation after declining to participate with investigations, despite expressing fears of retaliation.  The government arrested and charged 19 Bangladeshi potential trafficking victims with immigration violations after officials could not provide interpretation services and the potential victims declined to cooperate with investigations.

The government reported providing trafficking victims with temporary emergency shelter, food assistance, interpreters, specialized medical care, psycho-social support, and transportation.  Observers reported the lack of training, awareness of agency responsibilities, and coordination by government officials resulted in victims facing delays in receiving care and increased the potential for victims returning to or being located by their traffickers.  By law, trafficking victims were not required to participate in the investigation and prosecution of traffickers; however, in practice, to access services, many victims had to report to law enforcement.  For certification as a trafficking victim – the process that permitted victims to access government services and benefits – victims must report their case to SAPS; SAPS was then required to confirm the trafficking allegations, file human trafficking charges within 48 hours, and coordinate with the provincial DSD representative.  DSD was responsible for certifying trafficking victim status by issuing a letter of recognition, authorizing and monitoring the provision of protective services, preparing victim-witnesses for court, and accompanying victims through trial and repatriation, if applicable.  Observers reported DSD and SAPS lacked coordination and were often unreachable to certify victims’ status, resulting in victims sometimes unable to access timely emergency shelter and services, hindering overall protection efforts.  DSD and SAPS disputed this characterization, claiming officials were available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  Observers reported instances of SAPS officers leaving trafficking victims at shelters without coordinating with DSD and, when this occurred in Gauteng and Western Cape, DSD refused assistance to victims until confirmation from SAPS was obtained.  As reported by observers, in numerous instances, SAPS, DPCI, and DSD left victims at police stations overnight if their case was opened at the end of or after business hours.  After reporting to SAPS, within the same 48-hour time period, victims had to decide whether to participate in criminal justice proceedings.  Reportedly, victims willing to participate in investigations and prosecutions received certification and services faster than those unwilling to cooperate.  To circumvent the existing process in Western Cape, DSD and the Department of Health (DOH) had SOPs that permitted medical and psychological assessments for victims before certification to access immediate care.

The government continued oversight of 18 NGO-run multipurpose shelters, operated one government multipurpose shelter that could assist trafficking victims, and accredited two new shelters; however, the accreditation of nine shelters to serve trafficking victims expired during the reporting period.  These shelters continued providing services to trafficking victims.  Each province had at least one accredited multipurpose shelter.  Standards of care determined the accreditation status of shelters and accreditation lasted either two or four years before reevaluation.  Victims were not permitted to leave shelters without police escort but could discontinue shelter services at any time.  Few shelters accepted victims with their children.  Additionally, the government oversaw 88 NGO and government-operated semi-accredited shelters in compliance with DSD’s minimum standards of care for trafficking victims that could provide emergency care for up to 72 hours.  The government also operated a network of 61 Thuthuzela Care Centers (TCCs) – full-service crisis centers to assist victims of GBV, including trafficking victims – adding six new TCCs during the reporting period.  The government could provide shelter for unaccompanied child trafficking victims in Child and Youth Care Centers.  Additional NGO-operated shelters, unaccredited by the government, also provided care specifically to trafficking victims.  The government provided NGO-operated multi-purpose shelters a stipend on a per-person, per-night basis; however, these shelters reported funds were generally inaccessible after business hours, due to unresponsiveness by SAPS and DSD.  Due to decreases in both government and private funding for NGO-operated shelters, numerous chronically underfunded shelters serving trafficking victims faced closure.  The government maintained accreditation for one shelter serving male trafficking victims in Gauteng.  Vulnerable populations, such as LGBTQI+ persons, particularly transgender persons and LGBTQI+ migrants, were especially at high risk for trafficking due to social stigmatization.  Reportedly, two one-stop centers could provide shelter to LGBTQI+ victims, but available space was limited.  Shelters accessible to persons with disabilities provided limited services; it was unknown if trafficking victims received these services during the reporting period.  In Gauteng, trafficking victims could receive substance abuse treatment through five accredited treatment centers; treatment was provided for 12 weeks.  The shelters in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), and Western Cape generally offered adequate standards of care in both rural and urban areas, but quality of care in other provinces varied.  Observers reported government shelter staff sometimes neglected to inform victims of the status of criminal cases against traffickers.  Foreign victims, including both undocumented and with legal authorization, were fearful of accessing services at government facilities.  Undocumented victims could not legally seek employment, even when cooperating with law enforcement, and their trials extended several years.

Through the NPA’s Court Preparation Program, the government could provide victims with the option to testify via video conference both while in the country and after repatriation for foreign victims; and enhanced shelter and witness protection if the victim faced danger due to participation in the case.  The government could provide interpretation for victims’ oral testimony and translation for written statements.  The government reported that all identified victims participated in criminal justice proceedings.  NGOs emphasized the critical need for SAPS to issue Police Inquiry Numbers and CAS numbers to victims to facilitate follow-up on victim referrals and enable victims to track their cases.  PACOTIP allowed judges to order victim restitution in trafficking cases, but the government did not report any orders during the reporting period.

Foreign victims faced additional barriers to access care and justice.  PACOTIP authorized trafficking victims to receive relief from deportation.  During the reporting period, the government finalized and approved regulations guiding the implementation of this provision and handling of trafficking cases; however, the regulations awaited final adoption by Parliament and were not yet in effect.  As proscribed under PACOTIP, foreign trafficking victims were entitled to a visitor’s visa for 30 days, which could be extended if cooperating in an investigation or prosecution or if danger to the victim exists in their home country; however, the government did not report issuing these visas.  DHA had a policy to issue temporary identification documentation for foreign trafficking victims, requiring renewal every two weeks and continued cooperation with SAPS; however, DHA did not report providing such documentation to any trafficking victims.  The Mpumalanga PTT coordinated with the Governments of Mozambique and Eswatini to repatriate trafficking victims, sometimes in partnership with an international organization.

The government maintained mixed efforts to prevent trafficking.  The government coordinated anti-trafficking efforts through NICTIP, which was chaired by DOJCD, with representatives from DHA, DSD, SAPS, NPA, DOH, Department of Employment and Labor (DOEL), Department of International Relations and Cooperation; with support from an international organization, NICTIP met regularly.  NICTIP, with support from an international organization, drafted and approved its 2023-2026 National Policy Framework (NPF), soliciting input from select NGOs and one survivor, and allocated resources for its implementation.  The government did not have a dedicated budget for anti-trafficking efforts, but individual agencies contributed to their respective anti-trafficking efforts.  DOJCD allocated 1.7 million South African rand ($100,310) to support training efforts, implementation of the NPF, and NICTIP and some PTT meetings for 2023.  The chair of NICTIP directed all governmental trafficking efforts and implementation of the NPF.  DOJCD also chaired the National Rapid Response Team, which coordinated trafficking investigations and victim identifications and referrals; its activities were not reported.  Established in all nine provinces, PTTs coordinated provincial policies and Provincial Rapid Response Teams (PRRTs) facilitated local responses to trafficking cases and victim identifications.  As reported in previous years, some PTTs met regularly, including in KZN, Western Cape, Free State, and Mpumalanga, while others met sporadically.  Representatives on both NICTIP and PTTs shared duties on multiple task teams for other crimes, such as GBV, which limited capacity and resources to address human trafficking.  Observers previously reported SAPS, DHA, and DOEL were often absent from PTT and PRRT meetings, likely hindering overall efforts.

The government did not comprehensively monitor or investigate forced labor of adults or children in the agricultural, mining, construction, and fishing sectors and labor inspectors lacked necessary training to effectively identify trafficking.  DOEL trained 48 inspectors on employment laws, human trafficking, and child exploitation in KZN.  SAPS, DOEL, and DHA conducted joint inspections targeting child and forced labor; the joint task force referred several cases for investigation involving child labor and foreign trafficking victims, some of whom were penalized for immigration violations.  While inspectors had the legal authority to investigate private farms, they reported difficulty in securing access.  For the past three years, observers reported DHA did not often provide vulnerable migrant populations with proper immigration documentation, resulting in children denied entry to schools, which increased vulnerabilities for trafficking.   The government did not effectively regulate foreign labor recruiters or penalize them for fraudulent recruitment.  Although the law prohibited worker-paid recruitment fees, the government’s limited capacity hindered its ability to enforce this provision, especially in the informal sector.  SAPS operated a crime hotline that could receive reports of potential trafficking cases and a mobile app that led to 19 investigations with one confirmed trafficking case.  The government and civil society directed most trafficking-related calls to the NGO-operated National Human Trafficking Hotline (NHTH), which the government advertised.  In cooperation with PRRTs, NHTH received 3,374 calls pertaining to human trafficking in 2022, identified 391 potential victims, and successfully assisted with the removal of 50 trafficking victims from exploitation.  Observers reported most calls to the NHTH from victims occurred after police neglected to take their reports seriously or alleged police complicity was involved.  An NGO-operated national social justice hotline also received calls concerning human trafficking.

The government conducted awareness-raising activities in KZN, Free State, Gauteng, Eastern Cape, North West, Northern Cape, and Western Cape provinces, in collaboration with international organizations, reaching more than 84,000 individuals.  DSD partnered with a taxi union to raise awareness of trafficking among taxi drivers and commuters.  DPCI focused on raising awareness in vulnerable communities.  PTTs in four provinces conducted anti-trafficking awareness activities.  The government’s efforts to implement a previously reported integrated data collection system faced challenges and the government remained without means to collect human trafficking-related data.  The South African National Defense Forces maintained a hotline for reports of sexual exploitation by armed forces but did not report whether it received any calls regarding such exploitation during the reporting period.  Since 2015, 58 allegations of sexual exploitation and 10 allegations of sexual abuse were made against 67 South African peacekeepers; of these, the government has taken accountability measures in 22 cases and continued investigating six other cases.  The Generic and Sector Specific Training Manual on the PACOTIP Act contained a training plan for peacekeepers; however, the government did not report providing anti-trafficking training to its troops prior to deployment as peacekeepers.  The government did not make efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts.  The government reported training its diplomatic personnel on transnational crimes, but not specifically on identifying trafficking indicators.

• TRAFFICKING PROFILE:

As reported over the past five years, human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in South Africa, and traffickers exploit victims from South Africa abroad.  Traffickers recruit victims from neighboring countries and rural areas within South Africa, particularly Gauteng, and exploit them in sex trafficking locally and in urban centers, such as Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, and Bloemfontein.  Traffickers force both adults and children, particularly those from socioeconomically disadvantaged communities and rural areas as well as migrants, into labor in domestic service, mining, food services, construction, criminal activities, agriculture, and the fishing sector.  Traffickers may exploit South Africans in forced labor on vineyards and fruit and vegetable farms across the country.

High unemployment and socioeconomic stratification increased vulnerability of exploitation, particularly of youth, Black women, and foreign migrants.  Traffickers recruit victims who are unemployed and struggle with substance use, and commonly use substances to maintain control of victims, including children.  Parents with drug addictions sometimes exploit their children in sex trafficking to pay for drugs.  Traffickers increasingly entice foreign and South African women and girls with the promise of marriage and then force them into labor after marriage.  Abuse of the custom of ukuthwala, a cultural norm that can manifest into forced marriage , may contribute to vulnerability of girls and women to exploitation, particularly in Eastern Cape and KZN.  According to a study, in 2021, approximately 500,000 children dropped out of school, resulting in a total of 750,000 children not enrolled in school; high death rates from the pandemic increased the orphan population, leaving more children vulnerable to exploitation.  There were some reports of boys lured out of the country for fake sports scholarships and then forced into exploitation.

Traffickers recruit both foreign and South African victims through fake job advertisements on social media and classified advertisement forums, including advertisements for webcam modeling, hospitality, mining, and domestic work.  Some fake advertisements, particularly for domestic work, specifically request Zimbabwean or Malawian applicants.  Some farmers rely on “bakkie brokers” to rapidly expand their personnel during harvest season, bringing foreign migrants to work on farms; these brokers are unregulated and charge workers recruitment fees.  Traffickers exploit young men from neighboring countries who migrate to South Africa for farm work; some are subsequently arrested and deported as undocumented immigrants.  Despite high unemployment, migrants travel from East, Central, and Southern Africa to South Africa looking for economic opportunity, particularly from Ethiopia and Mozambique, and are vulnerable to exploitation.  The lack of valid documentation, due to a protracted asylum process, limited asylum seeker’s ability to access protection and services.

Official complicity in trafficking crimes, especially by police and immigration officials, facilitated the operation of traffickers and organized syndicates engaging in trafficking.  Syndicates, predominantly operated by Nigerians, force women from Nigeria and countries bordering South Africa into commercial sex, primarily in brothels and other commercial-front establishments.  South African organized trafficking syndicates exploit girls as young as 10 years old in sex trafficking.  Some well-known brothels, previously identified as locations of sex trafficking, continue to operate with officials’ tacit approval.  In some cases, traffickers exploit women in brothels disguised as guesthouses.  Syndicates also recruit South African women to Europe, where traffickers force some into sex trafficking, domestic service, or drug smuggling.  Mozambican crime syndicates use the eastern border of Kruger National Park in Mpumalanga, enabled by corrupt officials, to transport migrants to other parts of the country for forced labor, through the same routes used by syndicates to facilitate other crimes.  Syndicates also exploit miners, both South African and foreign migrants, sometimes known as zama zamas , in illegal gold, diamond, and coal mining; miners are exposed to dangerous conditions and sometimes killed by gangs vying for control of mines.  Traffickers operating in South Africa are mostly from Nigeria and South Africa; however, there were reports of traffickers from Bangladesh, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Pakistan, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, and the PRC.

Undocumented children, including child trafficking victims from Mozambique, the DRC, and Zimbabwe, are unable to access education and government services, which increases their risk of statelessness and vulnerability to trafficking.  Recruiters entice women from the Middle East, Asia, and countries bordering South Africa with offers of legitimate employment but, upon arrival, some subject the women to domestic servitude or forced labor in the service sector.  Traffickers exploit Basotho women in sex trafficking and domestic servitude and men in labor trafficking, particularly in the mining and textile sectors, in South Africa.  Traffickers exploit foreign male victims aboard fishing vessels in South Africa’s territorial waters.  Asian workers may travel to South Africa via commercial flights to disembark on fishing vessels where they are exploited.  Traffickers subject Pakistanis and Bangladeshis to forced labor through debt-based coercion in businesses owned by their co-nationals.  Owners of privately-owned PRC businesses exploit PRC nationals, South African, and Malawian adults and children in factories, sweatshops, and other businesses.  There were 432 Cuban medical workers in South Africa at the end of 2022.  Authorities continued to partner with the Government of Cuba to hire medical professionals to provide services in all provinces.  South African officials indicated workers were in control of their passports and credentials and reported contracting and paying workers directly.  However, it was unclear if Cuban workers controlled their own bank accounts and there was no information on the contracts the workers signed with the Cuban government.  In 2022, a credible international NGO published a global report on the Cuban labor export program, in which 18 former workers provided testimony on the conditions faced in South Africa.  According to the report, 45 percent were under surveillance, 48 percent were subjected to movement restrictions, 80 percent reported exploitation, 72 percent reported threats and violence, and 50 percent reported being forced to enroll in the program by Cuban authorities.

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Negotiating around ‘Human Trafficking’ in South Africa and the Border Area

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Chapter 5 focuses on the historical and legal classification of human trafficking and the adaptation of the concept in the South African context with its instrumentalisation for a restrictive state migration policy and a criminalisation of commercial sexual services. The chapter also reveals that attempts to categorically separate cross-border migration and sexual services from trafficking can actually strengthen demands for stricter border control and a legal ban on sexual services. Thus, the controversy over human trafficking obviously intensifies the antagonism between the advocates of liberal approaches to immigration and to sexual services and the supporters of the control discourses.

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Different to the 1956 convention, the amending protocol of 1953, which related to the slavery convention of 1926, did not change the definition of slavery. It only served to incorporate the 1926 League of Nations’ document into the legal sphere of the UN (cf. Sitaraman 2016:127).

Similarly, Kevin Bales (2008:11) criticises the “dilution” of the term slavery for “stretching the meaning of the word ‘slavery’ to include such issues as all forms of prostitution” so “that something that is not slavery will hide behind that name”.

However, Anne T. Gallagher (2010:336) recognises that a lot of states turned towards protection of and support for trafficked persons in their anti-trafficking measures.

While the UN (1973) condemned apartheid in its ‘International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid’, this document did not relate slavery and apartheid. For a detailed analysis see Jean Allain (2012:152ff).

While the Palermo Protocol is not specific about monitoring measures, the US Department of State took initiative and admonished countries who did not comply with the provisions of the protocol (Warren 2007:266).

This is a parallel to the Palermo Protocol, which concentrates on (transnational) crime and border enforcement instead of victims’ assistance (cf. Warren 2007:251f).

Africa Check is a non-profit organisation, which is concerned with verifying the accuracy of information in public debate and in media on the African continent.

This forum, founded in 2007, consists of the IOM and different South African NGOs from a wide range of backgrounds including sex workers’ organisations and neo-abolitionist organisations (cf. ANEX 2015).

The IOM staff Rashita’s earlier mentioned quote, which made reference to the figure of an ‘uncle’ as trafficker, suggests that she shared this assumption.

While the legalisation of sex work refers to the permission of offering sexual services in certain zones, for instance, parts of a municipality, the decriminalisation refers to the removal of restrictions for the sex business as long as it is conducted in adherence to labour regulations and other legal provisions (cf. SWEAT 2015).

While admittedly people in such situations face vulnerabilities, they also have opportunities as I have shown for migrants (cf. Chap.  2 and Chap.  3 ) and for people who sell sex (Hüncke 2016; Walker, Hüncke 2016).

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Hüncke, A.S. (2023). Negotiating around ‘Human Trafficking’ in South Africa and the Border Area. In: Migration and Making an Income in the Context of ‘Human Trafficking’. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-41670-6_5

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Home » News

By Vhahangwele Nemakonde

Digital Deputy News Editor

3 minute read

19 Aug 2024

South African woman rescued from human trafficking scam in Thailand

The woman escaped from the trafficking ring after lying about having a sexually transmitted infection..

The woman and her cousin fell for a human trafficking scam disguised as a job opportunity in Thailand.

The Department of International Relations and Co-operation (Dirco) has again rescued a human trafficking victim in Thailand.

According Dirco spokesperson Clayson Monyela, the woman and her cousin fell for a human trafficking scam disguised as a job opportunity in Thailand.

The woman and her cousin were bought ticket to Thailand by the prospective employers. Once they landed at the airport, they were driven 12 hours out of Thailand.

ALSO READ:  Human trafficking in SA: Hawks raise alarm in Gauteng

“Passports were confiscated and they were told they would work as prostitutes for a minimum of three years,” said Monyela.

Prison watchdog says 120 inmates died of unnatural causes in two years

The woman escaped from the trafficking ring after lying about having a sexually transmitted infection (STI).

The employers took her back to the airport with a return flight ticket, which turned out to be fake. The woman slept at the airport for two days before receiving help.

Although the woman is safe, her cousin, however, has disappeared.

I just spoke to the lady. She is safe. We’re getting her a plane ticket to fly back home. She escaped prostitution by lying that she’s got an STI.

“Everything she and her ‘cousin’ were promised were lies. The case of her cousin has been reported to the police. Our embassy will monitor progress thereof,” said Monyela.

“Please warn your family members; human trafficking is real. Please don’t fall for unsolicited job and study offers abroad. There are too many scams and human traffickers.

“If an offer looks too good to be true, it probably is. Find and inform SA embassies of your presence in any foreign country. That’s your home away from home.”

Human trafficking in SA

The human trafficking syndicates, however, also operate within South Africa.

The 2024 Trafficking in Persons Report by the US Department of State last week revealed that human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in South Africa.

ALSO READ:  ‘Big market’: Experts worry about sex trafficking infiltrating SA

They recruit victims from neighbouring countries and South Africa’s rural areas and exploit them in sex trafficking in urban areas such as Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Bloemfontein.

“Traffickers force both adults and children, particularly those from socioeconomically disadvantaged communities and rural areas as well as migrants, into begging, domestic service, mining, food services, construction, criminal activities, agriculture, and the fishing sector,” reads the  report .

“Traffickers recruit both foreign and South African victims through fake job advertisements on social media and classified advertisement forums, including advertisements for webcam modelling, hospitality, mining, and domestic work. Some fake advertisements, particularly for domestic work, specifically request Zimbabwean or Malawian applicants.”

READ MORE: 2024 human trafficking report reveals alarming exploitation trends in SA

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Rape and GBV victims face uphill battles at court – Action Society