According to Missing Children South Africa (MCSA), a child goes missing every five hours in South Africa-this adds to a total of 1687 children per year.
Trafficking is a global issue and there are as many as 1.2 million children who are trafficked every year. According to MCSA’s statistics, 77 per cent of children who go missing are eventually found, but the sad reality is that a large 23 per cent of the children are not being located.
Caitlyn Roxanne Le-Kay, a 16-year-old from Klipspruit West Extension One, has been missing since October 8. According to her mother Prudence Britoe, her daughter left the house at 7.30 am and has not returned home since.
“I remember that morning very clearly, Caitlyn dressed up, when my son asked her where she was going, she didn’t say anything. She finished up and left the house with her hair untied,” said Britoe.
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“I didn’t suspect anything, I assumed that she was going to my sister because that’s where she would go every day, she liked being with her cousins. I went to my sister’s home but the teenager was not there.
“I then WhatsApped a girl who lives around here to ask if my daughter was home but she told me that Caitlyn wasn’t home. I walked around asking all her friends if they saw my daughter but no one knew where she was,” said Britoe.
“After looking for my daughter all afternoon I decided to go the police station around 10pm and opened a case, the Pink Ladies immediately made a flyer which they circulated to help find my daughter,” she said.
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According to Britoe, a day after Caitlyn’s disappearance, one of her daughters’ friends came forward and said that she saw Caitlyn getting into a black Golf.
“Her friend told me that Caitlyn asked her to accompany her on Monday because men promised to take them out for breakfast which her friend refused. Her friend also told me that my daughter got into a black Golf with four male occupants,” said Britoe.
“I am so torn and so heartbroken, all I want is for my daughter to come back home safely. I feel like a useless mother, how can I not know where my child is, how can my child go missing with me here? ” she asked.
On the day of her disappearance, Caitlyn was wearing a blue top, black tights and green flip flops. After nearly a month, intensive search efforts mounted by the Eldorado Local Drug Action Committee, the Eldorado Park Community Policing Forum and other role-players within the community, the missing teenager, was found in Klipspruit West on November 10.
An overjoyed Britoe said, “I just want to thank God that my daughter is home safe. Right now nothing else
matters.”
A man, believed to be known to the family, has been arrested with Le-Kay’s disappearance and has been taken into custody at the Kliptown Police Station.
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