Human Trafficking of Young Women and Girls for Sexual Exploitation in South Africa

Abstract

External trafficking has occurred in this country since colonial times. Molo Songololo (2005), a children’s rights organisation, reports that between 1726 and 1834, as many as 36 169 slaves were brought from Indonesia, Java, Ceylon, India, the East Indies, Mauritius, Malay‐ sia and other countries to South Africa to work in mines, and as domestic workers. This was a practice instituted by the colonial authorities to boost the southern African economy by importing cheap labour. Three infamous examples typify the beginning of the trade in hu‐ man beings internally and externally (Martens, 2003; Martens, Pieczkowski & Van-VuurenSmyth, 2003). One known notorious incident was the recruitment, with promises of economic prosperity and educational advancement, of Saartje Baartman, who was transport‐ ed from the Cape Colony and exploited by European citizens in England and France (Mart‐ ens et.al, 2003). The promises made to her in her country of origin were not fulfilled – instead, her naked live body was displayed as an object of attraction for everybody to view. She eventually died in France, where her private parts were put on display in a museum. Another, less well-known, example involved European girls who were trafficked into the Cape Colony for the purposes of involuntary prostitution to meet the demand of men for prostitutes (Molo Songololo, 2005). More recently, Mozambican children were trafficked in‐ to South Africa to be kept as concubines in the Carletonville mines (Martens, 2003; Martens et.al 2003).