Sympathy for rent: Syndicate distributing ‘street kids’ for just R100 a day

If you want to make a little money by begging at traffic lights and you want to push the sympathy button in the wealthier suburbs, you can “rent” a child to sit with you and look forlorn … for just R100 a day.

At least two in every 10 women begging on the street with a child is using a “rent a kid”, according to a year-long investigation by The Citizen.

But you’ll still take home upwards of R200 for the day, more than some get paid in formal employment.

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Many of these beggars are being controlled by large criminal syndicates … and the cops say they can do nothing about it.

The South African Police Service (Saps) says unless there is a big child trafficking scam or proof of exploitation, officers cannot intervene.

Child begging syndicate

Saps spokesperson Colonel Athlenda Mathe said it was hard to follow such cases, especially when no charges were brought against the alleged masterminds behind the syndicates and when there was mutual consent.

“But if the women agree they were forcefully brought into the syndicate, they can come forward with information which could help us uncover the alleged syndicate,” she said. “It can only become an issue if the women and children were forced, and if there’s an issue of consent.”

Following concerns from residents and motorists in Gauteng, The Citizen did its own investigation into allegations of a child begging syndicate and found at least one of three women who begged on the streets formed part of a larger organised movement.

We spoke to at least 300 women in Pretoria and Johannesburg.

As many as 60% of them said they were happy begging and were not looking for formal work; 20% admitted they were working for somebody, with the rest alluding to being employed or were housed at a shelter and were looking for cash to make ends meet.

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Of the women we spoke to, 80% said the children they were begging with were their biological kids, while the other 20% said the children were rented out by guardians with a return fee of R100 daily.

Faith Kungwane (not her real name) is one of the women paid to beg. She said a lot of young foreign women, who were understandably desperate on coming into SA, agreed to be part of the syndicate in exchange for a place to sleep and food.

She said when she was 20, her sister Precious (also not her real name) told her to come to SA for work. She has been begging for more than five years.

“There is a family that drops us off here [at Wonderpark] and we beg until lunch. They come again to collect the money we made until lunch, and then they collect us again at a meeting spot,” she said.

When asked if the recruitment process had requirements, Kungwane said you just had to be desperate enough or willing enough and they would handle the rest.

Minor children traded for begging

The Citizen also found minor children, including newborn babies, were being traded and strategically used for begging, which was what the masterminds behind the alleged child trafficking scam meant when they said they would handle the rest.

Around 60% of the women interviewed were foreigners, mostly undocumented, who believed they could not find other employment.

Of the 40% who were South African, at least five percent were willing to work. The rest said they normally made more than R7 000 a month in the “right places”.

Nonprofit Save the Children said it was time law enforcement and the department of social development intervened.

“It is concerning that both the rights of the children and the women are [being] abused; many of these children do not even go to school,” Save the Children’s Gugu Xaba said.

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The solution should be a permanent one, so these women did not want to return to the streets 24 hours after being removed, she said.

A group of concerned grannies in Morningside and the Sandton Community Police Forum also expressed concern and said: “Children used for begging are in physical, mental and emotional danger and that it is blatant abuse of … their legal children’s rights, as ratified in the SA constitution Bill of Rights article 28 and the International Convention on the Rights of the Child.”

One of the grannies, Sharon Shevil, said: “At this stage we are working on anecdotal information and in order to formulate a campaign, we need to dig deeper and get evidence that this is happening. Only then can we start moving forward as a first step to prevent children being used for begging and kept off the streets.

“We are looking towards getting a much-needed shelter in the Sandton area, where these woman can be directed and get some form of training to earn a living other than begging.

“It is a long-term project. To get to the powers that be, the public, business and corporates involved, we need facts to make our campaign relevant and sustainable.”