The trafficking of children for purposes of sexual exploitation

Original transcripts of selected testimonies appear in Appendix 1
I am twenty-one years old. I was in a Reform school for girls. Two other girls and I decided to run away from the
Reform school. I lived in Woodstock for a year and a few months. Now, every night the other two girls went to the
road. At that time I didn't know what prostitution is. They did the work every night. Then I would wait on one of two
corners for them.
Then I saw Zunaid. We had to walk passed him in the evenings. He used to chase me and I would wonder who this
man is. I was a little scared of him. I didn't respond to him. We just used to go home every night. Until this Friday
night, we were sitting at the corner and he and two other girls approached us, in Green Point. He asked if we didn't
want to go with them. I asked where to and he said first to the Parade and then to the Bo-Kaap. I said I wasn't
going with him because I don't know him. Later, the girls had left and it was only one other girl and myself there
and then I went with him. He bought us food at the Parade and then we went to the Bo-Kaap.
I shared a bed with two of the girls that night and he got up during the night and wanted to pull me out of bed
because he wanted to have sex with me. I screamed and told him that I did not want to have sex with him because I
did not know him.
The following morning l wanted to go but he stopped me and said that I would get into trouble, on my own. The
girls who were with me went and fetched the police. He then told the policemen that l had run away from a Reform
school. I had no choice but to stay with him, after that.
Later I was quite surprised to see that the two girls were getting dressed. They wore short skirts. I asked them
where they were going and they said that they were going to (unclear from the tape). Then I also got dressed in a
short skirt. We went to the road. Then they taught me how to do business.
After some time they ran away and I was left alone with Zunaid and I told him that I wanted to leave. Then he said I
couldn't leave because I am the only person who can help him get other girls.
We moved from his mother's house to the ----, in Sea Point. We stayed there for two or three months. I went to the
road with him every night until I managed to get two or three girls to work with me. We didn't rob the men at that
time. We had to do proper business with the men. Then we moved to ------ Lane in Woodstock. There we started
robbing the men, without doing business. We stole guns and stuff like that. We didn't stay there long because the
neighbours complained about the noise we were making. Then we moved to another house in Woodstock. We lived
in a grey house.
Then the Muslim people who lived there said we should leave because we were keeping them awake at night. Then
he bought the house that they are staying in now. I lived there for years.
4.2. Stories of abduction
During interviews the abduction of 15 girl children were described. All the abductions took place in
the city centre either from the Golden Acre or Parade. The girls are typically abducted in groups of
3 or 4 by a group of 4 or 5 gang members. The leader of the gang is always present when the
abductions take place.
Of the 15 who were abducted 2 became members of the gang. The remaining 13 escaped. These
two girls escaped after 3 and 7 months with the assistance of others – in one case with the help of a
sex exploiter and in the other case, with the assistance of a couple, who were driving in Green
Point.
Abduction 1
In April 1997, four teenage girls from Delft, a township in the northern section of the Cape Flats,
were spending a Saturday afternoon in the city centre. They were walking through the Golden Acre
shopping complex at about 14h30. A man who was "'n Kleurlingman wat ek nie geken het nie" (A
coloured man whom I did not know) approached the four, "Ek het agterna ytgevind sy naam is
Zunaid." (I later discovered that his name is Zunaid.)
In separate interviews the four recalled the events of that afternoon. While they recall the events as
they experienced them individually and separately, their stories are remarkable for its similarities.
From these four testimonies the following emerge.
Four or five men approached them. One of the girls, Denise was threatened with a gun and told to
go with two of the men to fetch a car. The other men stayed with the remaining three girls.
Denise was taken to Salt River by public taxi from where the car was brought back to town. The
other girls were collected and taken to the house in Salt River. Here Eugene raped Denise. Mercia
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