The trafficking of children for purposes of sexual exploitation

Boy 2 N/A 16 Rape, theft, abduction
Boy 3 Former street child 17 Physical assault
Boy 4 Brother/sister’s son N/A Assault, rape, abduction
Boy 5 First cousin’s son 14 at time of death Physical assault
Boy 6 First cousin’s son 15 at time of death Physical assault
Boy7 N/A 17 Abduction, attempted rape, assault
Boy 8 Brother/sister’s son 23 Rape, abduction
Boy 9 Own son 17 Murder, rape, attempted rape
Boy 10 N/A 17 Physical assault
Boy 11 N/A 17, at time of death Murdered between ’96 and in Jan ‘99
Boy 12 N/A 17 Abduction, rape
Adult 1 Leader of the gang 36 Rape, murder, abduction, theft assault,
extortion
Adult 2 N/A 33 Abduction, rape and physical assault
Adult 3 First cousin’s son 19, at time of death Rape, abduction, assault
3.2.1.3. The girl children
Of the nineteen interviewees, six had done sex work and engaged in the robbing of sex exploiters.
Of the six, two had been abducted from the Golden Acre and the Parade respectively and held
captive. Two of the girls were lured off the street and the remaining two went to the house to bring
their siblings back home and were coerced into staying and becoming child prostitutes. The
remaining thirteen interviewees were abducted for purposes of physical and sexual assault by the
male members of the gang. They managed to escape. Their periods of captivity lasted from a couple
of hours to two months.
Interviews with the girls revealed the traffic of thirty-six more girls between 1994 and February
2000. The girls are known in the community as the gang leader's girls. They are generally between
the ages of thirteen and fifteen at first initiation. One child, was twelve. None of them indicated a
history of prior sexual abuse, although some of them had been sexually active. Most of them had
lived in relatively stable homes. Some had run away from institutions. The girls are exclusively
'coloured' and working class. The majority of them are from working class areas on the Cape Flats.
Four, comprising two sets of sisters, are from other provinces namely KwaZulu Natal and the
Eastern Cape.
Traditionally and universally gang members use a variety of methods to denote their allegiance or
affiliation to a specific gang. Traditionally this includes the wearing of a specific brand, type, or
colour of apparel (e.g. hat, jacket, shirt, pants, and shoes). 153 Gang members also dress either to the
right or the left. 154 The male members of the gang use covert methods to denote their gang
affiliation, as for instance in the dyeing of their hair bright green or orange. The girl members' gang
affiliation is shown in the tattooing of the leader’s name on their hands and in the dyeing of their
hair blonde and in the nose stud in the left nostril as well as three ear piercings in the left side. 155
The girls however only mentioned the tattoo which some of them experienced as traumatic.
From the interviews the following emerged about the traffic of girls into the gang.
• 55 known girl children trafficked, over a six-year period (1994 to February 2000)
• 15 abducted, of which 13 managed to escape without having done "sex work", 2 stayed on as
"sex workers"
• 4 lured to the house by the girls, sexually assaulted but let go
• 2 lured off the street by one of our interviewees, who also lured her sister
• 2 reported to have been murdered
153 J. Ogeiva: 'Gangs': http://eric-web.tc.columbia.edu/monographs/nds107/-gangs.html
154 Ibid
155 The piercings were noted by the researchers and mentioned by the independent researcher
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