Various local organisations recently staged an awareness march against human trafficking around the metro’s CBD.
Human Trafficking Awareness Week takes place from September 30 to October 7.
The march’s motorcade on October 2 went through the Union Buildings, Sunnyside and Marabastad and drove around Pretoria CBD before ending the campaign at Burgers Park. There they handed over pamphlets and talked to the public about human trafficking and reporting it.
The Department of Social Development (DSD) organised the march and was supported by the Thandanani drop-in Centre, Brave TO Love (BTL), TUT students, Hawks, SAPS, TMPD, Fula Africa and Voice in Action.
The department said hotspots for human trafficking are Sunnyside and Marabastad.
Most people who are rescued from human trafficking are offered support such as counselling and skills development.
Emma van der Walt, the founder of BTL and author of She Is Safe, a book bas
ed on human trafficking said that there are a number of weapons that can be used to fight human trafficking, the first of which, is prevention.
“Human trafficking is one of the most violent and horrific crimes that can ever be perpetrated on someone. It is slavery and no one should ever have to find themselves in that situation,” Van Der Walt said.
She said as an NGO, they work closely with law enforcement agencies to help rescue victims of human trafficking on top of the prevention work. She added that the commercial sex trade is a major contributor to human trafficking.
“We have many people who are being smuggled illegally into the country and becoming victims. When we work with intelligence agencies we get a sense of who these syndicates are because organised crime is involved. Now and then you will see a trafficker being opportunistic but most of these traffickers are involved with each other. They recruit and transport the victim and then they exploit them,” Van der Walt explained.
Ntombi Moloi, a GBV social worker at the DSD and Trafficking in Person (TIP) ambassador said human trafficking is far too high in the country.
“We need to make sure our people get this information, we need to raise this awareness in our communities. People need to know about human trafficking, they need to know about the buying and selling of human beings that is happening here in South Africa. It’s happening in different provinces, it’s even happening in nearby locations, in your communities so people need to be aware that anyone can be trafficked or be a trafficker,” Moloi said.
Moloi said communities need to be aware of the three elements of human trafficking which are recruitment, transportation and exploitation
Founder of Voice in Action, Kgothatso Moloto sent a stiff warning to South Africans regarding their apathy toward human trafficking.
“South Africans must wake up to this serious problem. If we don’t do something about it, a lot of our children will go missing and not only children are going missing, but adults as well. Together we can say ‘Stop human trafficking’, together we can decrease those numbers and encourage people to report it when it happens because it’s a very serious problem in the country,” Moloto said
To report human trafficking call, 0800 222 777.
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