 |
| Last night, 2 December 2023, 44 buses at the Beitbridge border post were stopped and searched after 443 children under the age of eight were found being transported. (Photo: X, formerly Twitter / @ClaysonMonyela) |
A joint sting operation by the guards of the new Border Management Authority, the Home Affairs anti-corruption unit, and the South African Police Services on Saturday night stopped the suspected trafficking of 443 very young children, all aged under eight, into South Africa. Some experts say that authorities might have interrupted a "smuggling" operation where Zimbabwean parents pay to have their children brought to South Africa for the festive season. The Border Management Authority (BMA) was highly intelligence-driven and received "data" about the buses before they entered South Africa.
The 44 buses conveying the children were halted at the North Gate of the Beitbridge Border Post with Zimbabwe before the buses entered South Africa. The bus drivers told them the children were going to play sports, but other information they received was that the children were sent by their Zimbabwean grandparents to their parents in South Africa. Experts in the field said last night that there was an existing practice where parents paid drivers to bring their children to South Africa for the festive season, but that this was more a case of "smuggling" than trafficking.
BMA commissioner Dr Michael Masiapato said the 44 buses conveying the children were halted at the North Gate of the Beitbridge Border Post with Zimbabwe before the buses entered South Africa. He said the children had passports, but there were no adults with them, apart from the drivers, and they were travelling without parents, guardians, and permission letters as regulations require. As the children had documents, it was difficult to charge the bus drivers with a crime.
The buses were inspected, and officials found 443 children. The oldest was eight years old. Social workers had been called in from the Zimbabwe side to assist the children. The children were handed back to Zimbabwean authorities.
The critical question is what other measures they put in place to deal with this kind of reality. The United States Department of State highlighted that the government of Zimbabwe did not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so. The government demonstrated overall increasing efforts compared with the previous reporting period, considering the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on its anti-trafficking capacity; therefore, Zimbabwe was upgraded to Tier 2. These efforts included investigating and prosecuting human trafficking cases, including cases of official complicity.
Masiapato said that since April, the BMA had prevented more than 44,461 undocumented individuals from entering South Africa illegally. Another 98,150 people were refused entry, and 100,452 were deported after overstaying their visas. Two hundred seventy-nine high-value vehicles were recovered in the past seven months, and 396 blasting cartridges were confiscated at the country's borders. The BMA also seized 19 cellphone tower batteries and solar panels on the Mozambique border at Kosi Bay and 641kg of dagga at the Lesotho and Eswatini borders. 9.1kg of Rohypnol, the date rape drug, was seized at OR International Tambo Airport, where it arrived hidden in dried fish.
This story is republished from the Daily Maverick. Click here to read the original article.
