How do we break the chains of injustice and defend the poor from exploitation?
My neighbor’s gardener, a very humble, timid man in his 60s, with limited literacy, went to buy a washing machine. The salesman at the furniture store managed to convince this old man that he needs a 14kg twin tub for R5 999.
But the big injustice is how they got the old man to sign a contract that ended up costing him a whopping R17 955 in total. Apart from the R5 999 item price, the salesman also added a R975 contract fee, plus a R750 delivery fee (other shops in the area charge around R250 for delivery).
To top this, there was also a maintenance agreement of R1 311, including an interest fee of 23% pa, more than double the prime rate, plus what is listed as a customer protection insurance costing the old man yet another R2 052. There was another protection insurance fee of R3 785. Without doubt this sounds exactly like the same thing above, and when asked, the old man said he did not ask for insurance.
This R5 999 twin tub washing machine ended up costing the old man, who could barely read, let alone understand what he had gotten himself into, a staggering R17 955 for a washing machine!
The old man told my neighbour that he was only asked for a mere R600 deposit and that he doesn’t understand what all these extra costs are for. Without doubt, some furniture stores are really making a killing when it comes to selling goods on HP, especially to the aged, most of whom cannot read nor write, let alone understand what they’re getting themselves into when they buy goods on HP.
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What about the children and young women?
Thousands of children, some of them too young to understand what is going on with their lives, are trafficked daily between South Africa and various other countries on the continent without proper documentation.
Not only does this place the lives of these children and women in the hands of human traffickers, paedophile gangs and sex slave traders, but it also exposes the laxity of proper controls on our borders. The recent arrest of several adults, among them women who were found transporting 57 young and women between South Africa and Malawi in August, the youngest of whom was only five, tells a horrifying story of how young children and women have become vulnerable to human trafficking sex slave traders.
Several sources within the Malawian community in South Africa approached recently by Kathorus MAIL for comments about the rife and cruel trade of human trafficking, pointed out that children and young women have become the most precious sought-after commodity by human traffickers. Many of these young children and women are said to end up in the hands of ruthless crime gangs who often sell their human cargo to the highest bidder.
It is a known fact that many of these women and children come from poor countries across the continent and the young women are lured by human traffickers from remote villages with promises of money and jobs. However, many of them never see the jobs or the money, but end up as sex slaves or as prostitutes in cartels run by drug dealers in South Africa’s towns and cities.
And for many of these young women and children, the quest for education and a better life in South Africa is another false promise their poor parents are told by traffickers.
Meanwhile, Kathorus MAIL applauds the school principal of Vhumbeni Primary School, Mr. Molapisi Seheshe, in seeking the help of the local police and the Department of Home Affairs in an effort to get many foreign young girls and boys, most of whom are in the country without proper documentation, to find their footing and rebuild their lives
