New visa regulations which has seen tourism figures plummet was instituted on the back of Home Affairs director-general Mkuseli Apleni telling parliament’s portfolio committee on Home Affairs that “it is estimated that 30,000 minors are trafficked through RSA borders every year and 50% of these minors are under 14 years”.
Actual figures, however, reveal that only 23 cases of child-trafficking have been uncovered in the past three years.
Times Live reports that claims by Home Affairs that new visa regulations will protect tens of thousands of children appears to be a gross exaggeration. The figure of 30,000 was used to usher in draconian visa regulations, which have the tourism industry not only up in arms but with their backs against the walls.
Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba told child advocacy groups that sub-Saharan Africa reported the highest share of child-trafficking in the world. The department claims that the visa regulations for those travelling with children, introduced on June 1, are in response to this growing threat. The regulations require the consent of both parents for children to travel as well as the presentation of an unabridged birth certificate.
However, a parliamentary reply to a question by the DA’s Dianne Kohler Barnard indicates that:
In 2012/13, three Mozambican children were trafficked via the Lebombo border post and were rescued at Amazing Grace shelter in Mpumalanga in April 2012.
In 2013/14, 18 instances of child-trafficking were recorded, including 16 Zimbabwean children who were trafficked through Beitbridge border post and held hostage at a house in Orange Farm, southern Johannesburg, as well as two children (one from Mozambique and one from China) who were rescued in Mpumalanga.
In 2014/15, a Mozambican child was rescued in KwaZulu-Natal.
On April 1, a girl from Zambia was rescued in Gauteng.
These figures do not appear to include any cases of South African children trafficked abroad.
Africa Check – a non-profit organisation promoting media accuracy – researched the statistics in 2013 and found little data to substantiate the claims.
These new regulations have hit the tourism industry hard. According to the Tourism Business Council of SA the number of lost tourists due to changes in immigration regulations is likely to be 100,000 with a loss of R1.4-billion to the economy.
