Child Trafficking in South Africa: Trends and Perspectives

Child trafficking can be viewed as a complex organized crime in both the international arena and African countries, including South Africa. This scourge threatens national safety and security, further strengthening the notion that “child trafficking” is undoubtedly the most significant new facet of organized crime occurring across porous international borders. As a result, various stakeholders in South Africa have been prompted to work against the related practices of this elusive crime wave; however, the dividends of understanding the trends and existing perspectives are presently minimal. The objective of this chapter is to present the historical trends and perspectives on child trafficking in South Africa by looking closely at trafficking in persons; peace and conflict relations; peacebuilding and trafficking international instruments; the theoretical explanation of conflicts in human trafficking; types of trafficking victims encountered; postmodern contributory factors; turbulent patterns and associated impacts (or effects); the strategies and challenges of policing this practice, as guided by the roles of the South African Criminal Justice System (CJS) and other key role players. The sections listed form the premise of this chapter and its aim to offer effective mechanisms with which to respond. This qualitative study solicited data from seminal experts within the South African CJS, namely: South African Police Service (SAPS) officials, National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) public prosecutors, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Thirty participants were selected to form part of the Key Informant Interviews (KIIs); these were coupled with documentary studies on the subject and the application of inductive thematic analysis. The responses offered are presented in the form of discussions, without indications of verbatim expressions or direct quotations of given statements. This chapter confirmed that the problem of child trafficking is moving “from a matter of regional and national concern, to one of international debate, possible global persuasion and policy intervention.” The researchers recommended that in crafting policy for tackling the enormity of this contemporary problem, it is imperative to start with a proper theoretical and empirical understanding of this phenomenon. Such an attempt should provide answers to the following three persistent questions: 1) What gives rise to child trafficking? 2) What are the consequences of this practice? 3) What intervention systems are, or should be, in place? This should be accomplished with reference to the large and rapidly growing literature on this subject, triangulating it with past and new literature studies in order to validate some of the broad policy implications of existing systematic reviews and empirical findings, with the objective of contributing to better informed discussions and policy implementation at this time of urgency.