The KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Social Development has called for the parents of 16 rescued child sex-workers to claim their children.

The girls were rescued on Friday from a building in the Point area in Durban.

MEC Weziwe Thusi said the case was a serious abuse of children.

She urged the nation to take a stand against it and commend the police on a job well done.

“We must fight the existence of child trafficking and prostitution rings because they attack the very core of our existence.  I would like to call on communities to assist the police in fighting this scourge,” she said.

Police spokesman Colonel Vincent Mdunge said state authorities had managed to track down some of the girls’ parents.

“The investigators have allowed the girls to undergo a debriefing session after which they will be filing sworn statements. Only then will re-introduction with families occur.”

He said some of the girls families had been tracked down but that finding the remaining families “would not be an overnight exercise because the girls came from different parts of  the country”.   

The girls would remain in the care of the authorities until details on their captivity are finalised.

The girls, eight of whom were minors, were used as drug mules and prostitutes, and were under the influence of drugs when they were rescued.

They  were due to be shipped out of South Africa from Durban.

Four people have been arrested.

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Sun May 19 22:36:10 SAST 2013 ::

Feb 20, 2012

RobinH

Good work SAPS.
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Feb 20, 2012

Sugaar

Zombies aka Zul,I know them very well they can either be s*x workers, drug dealers or streetfighter's.
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Feb 20, 2012

Bizzabo

I bet Nigetians were involved in this.
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Feb 20, 2012

MORNACHIES

Mazulu again and again .......if they are not rising from the dead ,they are kidnapping
innocent kids ............Nxa Sies le na bo Zooomer !!
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Feb 20, 2012

DJWinner

People say were are xenophobic when we talk about these things. We have no choice, we have to talk about this. Look, the fact here is that these Nigerians are distroying our country. You can just imagine the pain they caused to these kids. I hope government will do something about these Nigerians.
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Feb 20, 2012

DeCock1

KZN at it again...Zuma must hold an urgent indaba...and address the people of KZN about love...he did it in the Eastern Cape...dont know why his not doing it in the KZN...they don’t call him doctor love for nothing…
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Feb 20, 2012

Sugaar

DJWinner
People say were are xenophobic when we talk about these things. We have no choice, we have to talk about this. Look, the fact here is that these Nigerians are distroying our country. You can just imagine the pain they caused to these kids. I hope government will do something about these Nigerians.
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The won't doport Nigerians reason being that "ba ja banyana ba mazxulu"
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Feb 20, 2012

MommaC

No. These kids need to go through intensive therapy and drug rehabilitation before their families can take them. How the hell are a bunch of parents supposed to deal with the kind of issues these kids now have? It would also be a good idea to find out exactly HOW they got there because it wouldn't surprise me to learn that some of the parents actually sold their kids into this.
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Feb 20, 2012

MGEEZ

SAPS; I salute you!!!!
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Feb 20, 2012

RobinH

MommaC: I would be very wary of returning them to their parents without extensive investigation. Several people are assuming that they were "trafficked" by Nigerians, and I think it is safe to assume that foreign nationals of some kind were involved. BUT.... And this is a very big BUT: It must be borne in mind that such children are frequently sold to the traffickers by parents. This is a well established fact in many rural or "peasant" communities where poverty is extreme.
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