“It’s Wednesday, and one of the girls in the first class came in smelling like sex. As an adult, you just know. It’s a bad smell when you haven’t washed yourself after sex. Babies shouldn’t smell like that.
“The kids sitting around him were complaining. When I talked to him after class, he said everything was fine.
“The next day, my sister (who is in a different class) couldn’t sit. When his friend asked him why he was standing up during the lesson, he said that his butt hurt.
“We asked who was sick, but it was difficult for us to know. He was from Zimbabwe, and his English was not good.
“We called social services, but they didn’t come right away, so the girls had to go home with their father’s brother, who picked them up from school every day.
“This is Thursday.
“When the social worker didn’t come on Friday, we didn’t let the children go. We stayed with them at school until 5pm, waiting for social services to come.
“We tried to call his parents, but they were working in Zimbabwe. We couldn’t reach them.
“When my uncle came to the school, he asked for the children to be released. He went to the police station to tell them that the school was keeping illegitimate girls.
“Because he is the legal guardian, and because social services haven’t investigated, we have to let him go.
“That same evening, social services went to the address where he lived.
“But there was no one there. The children were not there. The neighbors said that the house was emptied on Friday.
“We are sending alerts, we are looking for these girls everywhere.
“But four more days until we meet, live in different houses.
“There are more children from our school living there. Men will come to the house, and they can rent a room – and a body.”
“It turns out that my father’s brother is the mastermind behind everything, but many people are involved.
“The children were taken to the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital. Doctors found signs of sexual abuse.
“He was sent to protective custody and a legal case was opened against his father’s brother, but he just ran away.
“After that I left for school.
“I just feel like nobody cares. The principal just says there’s nothing we can do, nothing we can do.
“It’s the teachers who have to fight for the kids. There was a point where I thought I was going to take these kids home, even if it meant going to jail.
“Schools fail, police fail, social workers fail.
“Nobody thinks there’s a house in Parklands where you can rent a room and a baby for the night.”
Bridgette August * is a primary school teacher in Cape Town. She spoke to Bhekisisa journalist Nicole Ludolph on condition of anonymity, because of the threats she received from traffickers, and to protect the two girls. The real name is known in the Center.
Sex trafficking happens all over the world – and it’s really hard to stop. This is a crime that targets mostly women and children, who are easily exploited in places with high unemployment or unstable political conditions. In almost half of the cases, law enforcement does not intervene if the victim himself does not ask for help first.
In 2022, for the fourth time in five years, South Africa failed to provide evidence that it is increasing its efforts to eradicate human trafficking, placing the country on an international watch list for governments that have not done enough to prevent human trafficking.
Although South Africa signed the United Nations treaty against transnational organized crime almost 20 years ago and passed the Prevention and Eradication of Trafficking in Persons Act in 2013, the country has not implemented provisions to protect foreign nationals living here, like Zimbabweans. The girls in this story are also safe.
This story is produced by Check out the Center for Health Journalism. Register for bulletin.