The trafficking of children for purposes of sexual exploitation

Actors/dancers/singers wanted. Experience not necessary (telephone number provided)
Young women are then surreptitiously coerced through a form of debt bondage into doing strip
tease work, providing sex to patrons of certain establishments or performing in pornographic films.
One such case came to the research team's attention at the beginning of March 2000. In this
instance, advertisements for young attractive girls were placed in both the Cape Argus and the Cape
Times. They offered work in the hospitality and film industries respectively. On investigation, it
transpired that the work was in a men's club in a peri-urban area of the Western Cape and that the
South African Police Service's Border Patrol Unit: Cape Town were investigating the case. This
alone prohibits us from reporting our involvement in uncovering this operation as it is currently
under investigation.
Newspaper reports have provided us with valuable information about the sexual exploitation of
children and provide us with information that allows for the identification of trends and patterns
with regard to this phenomenon. Specific newspapers have also run a series of in-depth articles on
the issue. This would indicate that certain editors regard the issue as important and urgent. The tone
of some of this reporting, however deserves mention, as it is sometimes sensationalist. This
sensationalism is most immediately observable in the headlines and the way in which it labels and
objectifies young girls who are being sexually exploited.
Some examples of such reporting is provided here
'My Baby's got eyes for you: Girls lured to Jozi with job offers – and sold' 35
This article deals with the traffic of a 14-year-old girl from KwaZulu-Natal to Johannesburg. This
girl was a voluntary migrant who accepted a lift and a job offer from a man who forced her to have
sex with several men in a room from which she could not escape.
'Girls aged 12 years selling their bodies for R2: Shocking tale of sex for sale' 36
This article describes girl children, some, as young as 12, engaged in street prostitution in
Chatsworth, Durban. It also notes community outrage about girls engaged in prostitution.
'The war on gymslip sex: Children as young as 12 are being sold into prostitution' 37
This article reports on the much-publicised case of brothel madam, Radha Hariganes, and parents
who facilitate the sexual abuse of their children in Durban.
'Hillbrow's seducers are babes in the wood' 38
This article reports on safer sex workshops run by the Esselen Street Clinic in Hillbrow for sex
workers. It focuses on girls who are under-age sex workers.
'Meeting the teen sirens of the night' 39
This article reports on the sexual exploitation of girl children in taverns in Messina, near Beit
Bridge.
In these articles the objectification of girls as "Sirens of the night", "girls in gymslips" engaged in
sex work, "girls as selling their bodies for R12" girls as "my baby" who's "got eyes for you", and
"babes who seduce" affords girls a sexual agency. This sexual agency is then negated by the actual
content of the reports, which invariably invalidates the girls' sexuality and presents a story of a girl
child without agency and at the sole mercy of more powerful adults. This is then reflected in a focus
on the causal factors that lead to the sexual exploitation of mostly black girl children.
35 City Press: 27/4/97
36 V. Pillay: Tribune Herald 9/1/00
37 Saturday Paper 18/10/97
38 M. Sibanda and M. Marx: City Press 24/1/99
39 M. Safara: Sowetan 2/2/00
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