C S E C The Commercial Sexual
Exploitation of Children In the early years of the 21st Century, 2000 to
2025 gvnet.com/childprostitution/SouthAfrica.htm
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CAUTION: The following links
and accompanying text have been culled from the web to illuminate the
situation in HOW TO USE THIS WEBPAGE Students If you are looking
for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on
this page and others to see which aspects of child prostitution are of particular
interest to you. You might be
interested in exploring how children got started, how they survive, and how
some succeed in leaving. Perhaps your
paper could focus on runaways and the abuse that led to their leaving. Other factors of interest might be poverty,
rejection, drug dependence, coercion, violence, addiction, hunger, neglect,
etc. On the other hand, you might
choose to write about the manipulative and dangerous adults who control this
activity. There is a lot to the
subject of Child Prostitution. Scan
other countries as well as this one.
Draw comparisons between activity in adjacent countries and/or
regions. Meanwhile, check out some of
the Term-Paper
resources that are available on-line. Teachers Check out some of
the Resources
for Teachers attached to this website. HELP for Victims Police Service ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** Teen sex worker
sells her body for R10 a time Sbongile Dimbaza,
Independent Online (IOL) News, August 20 2006 www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/teen-sex-worker-sells-her-body-for-r10-a-time-1.290141 [accessed 21 July
2011] At the tender age
of 13, when most girls are still cuddling their dolls and braiding their
hair, Suzy has been a prostitute for two years. She is paid R10 for
sex. But included in the deal is an extra R5 for her younger brother Fred, who
waits quietly for her outside the door while she is with "a
client". Zille on drugs,
decay, and child abuse This is an edited
extract from a speech delivered by Helen Zille, leader of the Democratic
Alliance, to an anti-drug march in Vrededorp, www.politicsweb.co.za/politicsweb/view/politicsweb/en/page71654?oid=87153&sn=Detail [accessed 21 July
2011] Child abuse is a
complex problem, but it is clear that the rampant drug and alcohol abuse is a
major factor driving it. When parents abuse drugs and alcohol, they neglect
their children. These children are left to their own devices, at the mercy of
those who prey on children. And, when
children are neglected and there are drug dealers on every street corner, it
is not long before they are caught up in a cycle of drug and alcohol abuse themselves. Without the means to pay for
drugs and alcohol, these children often resort to selling their bodies on the
street to buy drugs. And this is what is happening here in Vrededorp, an area that has become infamous for having
the highest rate of child abuse in the greater Johannesburg region. The Teddy Bear Clinic in Johannesburg is
currently caring for a 9 year old boy who was selling his body on Vrededorp's streets to pay for his addiction to crack
cocaine. His is only one such case.
Children are being sold for sex right under the noses of the police. I
am told that the corner of Caroline and Vygie
Street is notorious for child prostitution. It is also happens to be located
next to the Johannesburg Headquarters of the Flying Squad. ***
ARCHIVES *** Runaways
- Where To Turn For Help Before You Are Homeless Rebeccas Community -- This
is for anyone aged up to 13 years old who is thinking about running away www.homeless.org.au/runaways.htm [accessed 21 July
2011] Here are the best
phone numbers to call …They are Confidential - which means they won't tell
anyone about your call unless you want them to talk to somebody for you, or
you are in danger. They are open 24
Hours - it doesn't matter what time you call
In South Africa, call 08000 55555 ECPAT Country
Monitoring Report [PDF] Alessia Altamura, ECPAT
International, 2013 www.ecpat.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/a4a_v2_af_s.africa_0.pdf [accessed 7
September 2020] Desk review of
existing information on the sexual exploitation of children (SEC) in South
Africa. The report looks at protection mechanisms, responses, preventive
measures, child and youth participation in fighting SEC, and makes
recommendations for action against SEC. Human
Rights Reports » 2019 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, March 10, 2020 www.state.gov/reports/2019-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/south-africa/ [accessed 7
September 2020] SEXUAL
EXPLOITATION OF CHILDREN - The law prohibits commercial sexual exploitation,
sale, and offering or procurement of children for prostitution and child
pornography. Conviction includes fines and 10 years’ imprisonment. The Film
and Publications Board maintained a website and a toll-free hotline for the
public to report incidents of child pornography. On October 31, Johannes Oelofse of Alberton in Gauteng Province was sentenced to
life imprisonment for conviction of repeatedly raping his mentally disabled
daughter over the course of eight years. 2018 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor Office of Child
Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking, Bureau of International Labor
Affairs, US Dept of Labor, 2019 www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/ILAB/child_labor_reports/tda2018/ChildLaborReportBook.pdf [accessed 7
September 2020] Note:: Also check out this country’s report in the more recent edition DOL
Worst Forms of Child Labor [page 1065] South Africa is a source,
transit, and destination country for child trafficking. Children are
trafficked from poor rural areas or peripheral townships to urban centers,
such as Cape Town, Durban, and Johannesburg. (2,27)
Girls are mainly victimized for commercial sexual exploitation and domestic
work, and boys are forced to work in street vending, food service, and
begging. (2,18,28-30) Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 28 January
2000 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/southafrica2000.html [accessed 23 December 2010] [39] While noting
the efforts of the State party to implement legislation, policies and programs
to prevent and combat the sexual exploitation of children, the Committee
remains concerned at the high incidence of commercial sexual exploitation. In
the light of article 34 and other related articles of the Convention, the
Committee recommends that the State party undertake studies with a view to
designing and implementing appropriate policies and measures, including care
and rehabilitation, to prevent and combat the sexual exploitation of
children. The Curse of Child
Prostitution Vimbai Komani,
The Herald, allafrica.com/stories/200904100077.html [partially accessed
21 July 2011 - access restricted] Child prostitution,
however, is not only about little girls as young boys are also increasingly
being targeted. The International
Organisation for Migration has identified this as a growing problem in Chiredzi where boys are leaving for Prostituted girls’
parents not found Nivashni Nair, Jun 18, 2008 This article has
been archived by World Street Children News and may possibly still be
accessible [here] [accessed 21 July
2011] Their parents did
not try to find them and it seems the only person who wanted them was the
pimp who sold them. Durban police have
not found the parents of two girls, aged between eight and 12, whom they
rescued two weeks ago. A man had allegedly been selling them on the city’s
notorious Mahatma Gandhi Road (formerly Point Road) for sex. The girls lived on
the streets and the police have not established where they come from. They are being cared for at a safe house
but, according to those who assist street children, the likelihood of the
girls returning to the streets is high. “Right now, these
two little girls do not realise that they have been
saved — they feel like they are being punished. One has to understand the
mentality of a street child to understand why they run away,” he said. “I am almost certain
that these girls are missing the friends they bonded with on the streets and
they also miss the money they were getting from the pimp.” - sccp SA's child abuse
statistics incoherent www.sabcnews.com/south_africa/social/0,2172,160830,00.html [Last access date
unavailable] More than 70 young
girls in the past year have been rescued from prostitution in the towns of
Atlantis, Gateways to
exploitation Globe and Mail, Nov.
10, 2007 -- Source: ECPAT International www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/gateways-to-exploitation/article1089077/ [accessed 7 October
2012] Kids ‘primed for
sex jobs’ Aly Verbaan, City Vision, 01 November 2007 At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 21 July
2011] Pimps are
apparently already recruiting their unsuspecting victims on the city’s
streets, promising them better lives after the World Cup and stringing them
along with cash and even drugs in the meantime. A social worker, who declined to be named,
told People’s Post that children, who will not even be teenagers by 2010, are
being lured into prostitution by organised crime
syndicates that plan to reap foreign currency by selling the youngsters to
sex tourists. But it is not only
poor or neglected children who are in danger: Reports from local police
stations around the country warn of teenagers being abducted at shopping
malls or while walking home from school.
Their kidnappers’ intentions are to “prepare them for the World Cup”,
according to the reports. Cops bust child
brothel Noor-Jehan Yoro Badat, Kashiefa Ajam and Sheree Russouw, Independent Online (IOL) News, February 17 2007 www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/cops-bust-child-brothel-1.315563 [accessed 21 July
2011] Police have bust
two men for allegedly running brothels in It was alleged that
at least 10 children aged between 10 and 14 years old were paid for sex. The men, aged 24 and 28, were arrested in Emndeni and Dobsonville Gardens
on Monday. Xaba said one of the men was from Venda
and the other from KwaZulu Natal. They have appeared in the Protea Magistrate's Court and have been charged with
statutory rape. Beach loos
perpetuating crime Independent Online
(IOL) News, October 5 2006 www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/beach-loos-perpetuating-crime-1.296406 [accessed 21 July
2011] Angry Blouberg residents have called for the demolition of the
beachfront toilets, which have become associated with child prostitution and
drug peddling. Locals gathered for a
heated meeting in Table View last night to discuss the public toilets which
beachfront residents claim have become a favoured
spot for adult men to pick up young boys for sexual favours. Poverty, drugs
driving kids to sell sex on street Derrick Spies, Safety
and Security Reporter, The Herald, August 10, 2006 povertynewsblog.blogspot.com/2006/08/south-africa-poverty-drugs-driving.html [accessed 21 July
2011] Kids as young as 12
are selling sex in Central in exchange for accommodation, drugs and
money. Children running away from
poverty and abuse in the poorer areas of Police spokesman
Captain Verna Brink said a number of children, some as young as 12, had been
found during police raids conducted in Central over the last two weeks. Some of the children had been reported
missing by their families in the northern areas, while others come from more
affluent suburbs, and appear to have become involved in prostitution to
support a drug habit.” Street children as
young as 8 being lured into prostitution by tourists Tabelo Timse,
The Herald Online News, 26 July 2006 www.oijj.org/news_ficha.php?home=SI&cod=34665&pags=0&idioma=es [accessed 21 July
2011] streetchildrennews.wordpress.com/2006/07/25/street-children-lured-into-prostitution/ [accessed 5 January
2017] Street children,
some as young as eight years, are increasingly being lured into prostitution
by local and foreign tourists in the Knysna area. Police say they are
aware of the problem but poverty and a culture of silence are obstacles in
their attempts to prevent child prostitution. Knysna Child Welfare has
conducted several workshops on child trafficking in the Garden Route and
reports that a trend has emerged that street children are being used for
prostitution, drug smuggling and other crimes. Chairman Trix Marais said there was a “vicious cycle of silence.
Their parents and the community know about it but they keep quiet.” City child sex shame Fiona Gounden, Independent Online (IOL) News, May 27 2006 www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/city-child-sex-shame-1.279306 [accessed 21 July
2011] Thousands of girls and
boys, some as young as 10, are selling themselves on Children's groups
and police are now saying the problem is out of control and that many are not
selling themselves for survival but rather just for money to buy luxury
items, cellphones and other teen status symbols. Crack is sweet in
Cape Town Theuns van der Westhuizen, Die Burger, Cape Town, 2006-05-05 www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Crack-is-sweet-in-Cape-Town-CBD-20060504 [accessed 21 July
2011] He told the horror
story of street children employed as drug mules between the shacks in the
squatter camp of some 200 inhabitants and the station roof, empty buildings
in the Culemborg area being occupied by squatters,
and child prostitution in exchange for drugs. Sex workers and
clients 'made to pay bribes' Karyn Maughan,
Independent Online (IOL) News, May 24 2006 www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/sex-workers-and-clients-made-to-pay-bribes-1.278865 [accessed 21 July
2011] These children are given
R30 to have sex with adults, but claim that police demanded 10 times that
amount not to arrest them.
"Sometimes they pick us up and drive with us for a while, and
then they say they will put us in the cells with the killers if we don't give
them money. Five Years After ECPAT: Fifth Report
on implementation of the Agenda for Action ECPAT International,
November 2001 www.no-trafficking.org/content/web/05reading_rooms/five_years_after_stockholm.pdf [accessed 13
September 2011] [B]
COUNTRY UPDATES – Loophole
may free sex predators Kashiefa Ajam,
Independent Online (IOL) News, January 29 2005 www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/loophole-may-free-sex-predators-1.232639 [accessed 21 July
2011] Loopholes in the
Child Care and Sexual Offences Act might allow the suspects to escape the
law. This was because the legislation states that the main witnesses in these
cases must be the victimized children themselves but, since most are drug
addicts, they would be considered unreliable witnesses. Our
children are selling sex to survive Philda Essop
and Ashley Smith, Independent Online (IOL) News, November 9 2005 www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/our-children-are-selling-sex-to-survive-1.258345 [accessed 21 July
2011] A shocking child
sex exploitation study has revealed how Human Trafficking
Stretches Across the Region Moyiga Nduru,
Inter Press Service News Agency IPS, Benoni, South
Africa, June 23 www.ipsnews.net/africa/interna.asp?idnews=24338 [accessed 23
December 2010] www.ipsnews.net/2004/06/rights-southern-africa-human-trafficking-stretches-across-the-region/ [accessed 15
November 2016] Children's rights
groups like the Cape Town-based Molo Songolo estimate that 28,000 children engage in
prostitution in South Africa - and that 25 percent of prostitutes in Cape
Town are children. About 5,000 young boys and girls are said to cater for
foreign tourists in the city alone. In
a video clip, a 13-year-old girl says that one of her clients is a
73-year-old man. Asked whether she is
afraid of contracting HIV, a second girl (14-year-old) shrugs her shoulders
and says: "It's better to die, because there is nothing to live
for." www.thebody.com/content/art29187.html [accessed 21 July
2011] A report to the UN
Commission on Human Rights says that No
Laws Against Child Prostitution Jo-Anne Smetherham, Daily News, Dec 18, 2003 www.stopdemand.org/afawcs0112878/ID=88/newsdetails.html [accessed 21 July
2011] Children are
increasingly being forced into prostitution in Baby
Rapes Shock Barnaby Phillips,
BBC News, 11 December, 2001 news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1703595.stm [accessed 21 July
2011] It is the latest in
a series of rapes of baby girls - some of them involving children less than
one year-old, which has left South Africans reeling with horror. Every day the newspapers bring awful revelations:
a nine-month-old girl gang-raped by six men; an eight-month-old raped and
left by the roadside. The government
is trying to dispel a widespread rumor - that having sex with a virgin cures
AIDS. Traditional healers, or
witchdoctors, are blamed for spreading this idea, and encouraging child rape. 38 000 child
prostitutes in SA South African Press Association SAPA, www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/38-000-child-prostitutes-in-SA-20040511 [accessed 23 December 2010] BBC News, 23
November, 2000 news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1037215.stm [accessed 21 July
2011] VIRGIN
SEX MYTH
- The report says the southern African myth - that Aids can be prevented by
having sex with a virgin - has also contributed to the increase, as has an
increased demand among foreigners for sex with black children. Children, particularly from 40 000 child
prostitutes - Street children vulnerable to sex trade A. Bolowana, 2004 www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=283&fArticleId=2198903 [Last access date
unavailable] “I started walking around
with nothing to do. That's when I met this man. To me he looked like an
ordinary man, a nice guy. First he asked me if I'm hungry. Of course I'm
hungry. He takes me to a
restaurant near the parlours, buys me food -
hamburger and chips. I think: 'This is a treat.' "And then he
says: 'You must be tired. Why don't you come with me?' So I go home with this
guy old enough to be my grandpa." That was the start
of a sexual relationship that spanned more than 10 years. Besides the
"emotional" connection he could not explain, Eric said he would go
back for the R10 he got "to do this little thing which disgusted
me". "This was my
easy way of getting money," he said. Despite his disgust with the man -
he had also molested two other friends of Eric's - he still defends him.
"He wasn't like other paedophiles that would
rape and molest children." Mean Streets -
Child Prostitution In Nandi Pointer,
Essence, Oct, 2001 At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 21 July
2011] An alarming number
of adolescent girls, many living in the impoverished townships of Child
Sex Industry Booms In LaborNews, 23 July 1996 www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/37a/029.html [accessed 21 July
2011] Study
On Black Child Prostitution Calls For Government Action South African Press
Association SAPA, 27 May 1997 pangaea.org/street_children/africa/safrsex4.htm [accessed 21 July
2011] Black child
prostitutes walking the streets of Abduction
1996: August Cape Town Central Business District Rebirth Africa Life
on the Continent, www.rebirth.co.za/a_true_story_of_how_one_girl_was_traf.htm [accessed 18
September 2011] Alicia, fourteen
years old, on Thursday afternoon 8 August 1996: ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** ECPAT Global
Monitoring Report on the status of action against commercial exploitation of
children - SOUTH AFRICA [PDF] ECPAT International,
2007 www.ecpat.net/A4A_2005/PDF/AF/Global_Monitoring_Report-SOUTH-AFRICA.pdf [accessed 21 July
2011] The occurrence of
sexual exploitation of children through prostitution, child pornography and
trafficking for sexual purposes has been acknowledged by the South African
Government through their commitment to the Stockholm Agenda for Action and
other international conventions. Despite this commitment, progress towards
the reduction and elimination of commercial sexual exploitation of children
(CSEC) in the country has been slow and incidents of such violations against
children continue to grow. The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on the
Worst Forms of Child Labor www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/south-africa.htm [accessed 23 December 2010] Note:: Also check out this country’s report in the more recent edition DOL
Worst Forms of Child Labor INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - There are reports that child prostitution is
increasing. There have been reports
that some cities are becoming destinations for tourists seeking sex with
minors. Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61593.htm [accessed 11 February 2020] CHILDREN
-
Child prostitution continued during the year.
NGOs provided shelter, medical, and legal assistance for child
prostitutes and a hot line for victims of child abuse. The government donated
land and buildings for various shelters for victims of sexual abuse, street
children, and orphans. TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS
– The law prohibits the commercial sexual exploitation of children, sexual
intercourse with children under 16, and permitting a female under 16 to stay
in a brothel for the purpose of prostitution. The country was a destination, transit, and
point of origin for the trafficking of persons, including children, from
other countries in Africa, Asia, and Human
Rights Reports » 2000 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2000/af/788.htm [accessed 21 July
2011] CHILDREN - Child
prostitution is on the rise, primarily in All
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ARTICLES. Cite this webpage as: Patt,
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