Francesca Villette
SINCE democracy, more than 100 Western Cape parents are still grappling with the idea that they may never see their children again.
Police spokesman Andre Traut said police were investigating 132 cases of missing children since 1994. Sixty cases were of children under 12, he said.
Traut said if a child under 12 went missing, the case was investigated by the police’s Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit, irrespective of whether a crime had been committed.
While reasons for their disappearances varied, human trafficking was among the most feared.
Missing Children South Africa’s national co-ordinator Nicky Rheede said according to the Missing Persons Bureau, a child went missing every six hours in South Africa, and that many of the cases were suspected to be related to human trafficking.
“More people need to be made aware of the reality of human trafficking. We are sure that many of the cases reported to police and our organisation are because of it, but at this stage it cannot be proven.
“According to the International Labour Organisation, it is estimated that 1.2 million children are trafficked each year.”
Patrick Solomons, director of children’s rights organisation Molo Songololo, said there were 30 cases of human trafficking cases on the court roll, which included children.
“There is a definite cause for concern when it comes to the disappearance of children. Children are especially vulnerable to be trafficked as a form of cheap labour or for sexual exploitation,” Solomons explained.
The disappearance of her then 9-year-old son Matthew in 1997 prompted Mitchells Plain mother Michelle Ohlsson to establish the Concerned Parents for Missing Children – an organisation which for 12 years yielded 90 success stories in 400 cases of missing children.
Withdrawal of government funding forced her to shut down the organisation.
Ohlsson said most of the children they found had been recruited into a world of prostitution or abducted for human trafficking.
“The main reason children are kidnapped is so that they may be sold as sex workers. We were fortunate to discover a number of missing boys and girls who went missing for that very reason.
“The second biggest reason that they go missing is because they get raped and killed,” Ohlsson maintained.
Rescued victims needed support, which included trauma counselling and emotional help, she said.
Although there was not a day she did not think about her son, Ohlsson said she has had to be strong for her other three children.
“They say that time heals everything, but how do you heal without any answers? If I die tomorrow there will still be no ending to my story,” she said.
To report a missing child, visit www.missingchildren. org.za/report or go to any police station.