Speeches

Keynote Address by the Deputy Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, the Hon JH Jeffery, MP at the Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Coordination Workshop, held at the Sheraton Hotel, 643 Stanza Bopape St, Arcadia, Pretoria, 27 March 2018

Programme Director,
Regional Representative of UNODC South Africa, Ms. Zhuldyz Akisheva
First Counsellor and Head of Section for Governance, Social Sectors and Culture at the Delegation of the European Union to the Republic of South Africa, Mr Manuel Iglesias-Roa
Anti-Trafficking Expert from the UNODC, Ms Barbara Sidoti
National Project Officer UNODC-GLO.ACT, Mr Banele Kunene
Ladies and gentlemen, friends

This past Sunday, the 25th of March, it was the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. 

Every year, this day offers the opportunity to honour and remember those who suffered and died at the hands of the brutal system of slavery.

The International Day aims to raise awareness about the dangers of racism and prejudice today.

It also provides us with an opportunity to reflect on modern day slavery.

Like an anti-trafficking poster that I recently saw, says: “If you think slavery ended in the 1800s, think again.”

The 2017 Global Estimates of Modern Slavery, which was developed jointly by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Walk Free Foundation, in partnership with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has revealed the true scale of modern slavery around the world.

The data shows that more than 40 million people around the world were victims of modern slavery in 2016.

The ILO have also released a companion estimate of child labour, which confirms that about 152 million children, aged between 5 and 17, were subject to child labour.

The new estimates also show that women and girls are disproportionately affected by modern slavery, accounting for almost 29 million, or 71% of the overall total. The research also reveals that among the 40 million victims of modern slavery, about 25 million were in forced labour, and 15 million were in forced marriage.

We are seeing governments all over the world taking increased action against trafficking. 

In another study, the 2016 Global Slavery Index, 161 countries were included in an assessment of government responses. Of the 161 countries:

• 124 have criminalised human trafficking in line with the UN Trafficking Protocol,
• 96 have National Action Plans to coordinate the government’s response, and
• 150 governments provide some form of service for victims of modern slavery.

Governments are responding with greater efforts to prevent and combat trafficking.

Looking at the past month alone, we have seen the Government of Jamaica partnering with the United Nations to launch the Global Blue Heart campaign against human trafficking.

The Ugandan judiciary has recently called on their government to establish specialised courts for human trafficking and sex cases, saying they are special and need expertise. Reports in Scotland of suspected human trafficking have shown a marked rise of 42% on the previous year’s figures.
And amongst our partners in BRICS, the Indian Cabinet has recently approved their Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill for introduction.

In our own country, since the start of this year, we’ve seen numerous media reports of trafficking, with 6 suspects having been arrested for alleged human trafficking in the Free State in January.  According to the Hawks, 7 of the victims‚ amongst them four females and three males‚ originate from Lesotho whilst the other three females are from Bloemfontein.

One of the men told the media that he was trafficked with the promise of work as a shop assistant in the Free State mining town of Welkom. Instead‚ with the threat of violence and death hanging over him‚ he was forced to guard women who had been lured from across southern Africa to the Free State with the promise of work. 

He believed the offer‚ made by two Lesotho women he knew‚ was the answer to getting his family out of a life of poverty. He was told that there was lots of work in Welkom and he could earn R2‚400 a month. “We were desperate‚" he said.

As you are also aware, the Hawks are also investigating charges of human trafficking against the Seven Angels Ministries church at Nyanga village outside Ngcobo.

It is important to stress that we are making progress in the fight against trafficking.

In the 2016 Global Slavery Index, which I mentioned earlier, South Africa ranked 27th out of 167 countries and the US State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report 2017’s chapter on South Africa states that our “government demonstrated increasing efforts by identifying more than double the number of trafficking victims and referring all identified victims to care.”

The report further notes that our government has increased protection efforts and that government increased efforts to prevent trafficking as we finalized and began to implement our national action plan.

The Prevention and Combating of Trafficking in Persons Act (the TIP Act) came into operation on 8 August 2015. 

This was a significant step towards ensuring that South Africa makes progress towards the full implementation of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children supplementing the United National Convention Against Transnational Organised Crimes.  South Africa signed this Protocol on 13 December 2000 and ratified it on 20 February 2004. 

South Africa now has a comprehensive law addressing all forms of trafficking in persons offences. 

This Act creates an offence of trafficking in persons and related offences, providing for penalties relating to the offence, measures to be put in place to protect both internal and external victims of trafficking in persons’ offences and to provide for its coordinated implementation and monitoring.  It also enables the ease of monitoring of the trafficking in persons’ crimes and related offences.

In preparation for the coming into operation of the TIP Act, several structures were put in place, such as the National Inter-Sectoral Committee on TIP, Provincial Inter-Sectoral Committees and Rapid Response Teams, and draft Terms of Reference were developed.

Some of the challenges currently being experienced include the fact that, at the moment, there is no systematic collection and analysis of data on TIP and SOM (Smuggling of Migrants). Departments produce their own statistics, disaggregated according to different line functions.  

Data collection is also further hampered by gaps in the identification of trafficking persons, particularly those trafficked for purposes other than sexual exploitation.

It is crucial to stress that the successful implementation of the TIP Act will require that all the law enforcement agencies work together in ensuring the successful prosecutions. This requires the clear understanding of roles and responsibilities of each department and institution on how to administer the TIP Act. 

In this regard, I also want to highlight the work being done by GLO.ACT in our country.
GLO.ACT - or the Global Action to Prevent and Address Trafficking in Persons and the Smuggling of Migrants - is a four year joint initiative by the EU and the UNODC being implemented in partnership with the International Organization for Migration and UNICEF.
The programme forms part of a joint response to trafficking in persons and the smuggling of migrants and it is expected to be delivered in 13 strategically selected countries across Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America. A focus is being placed on assistance to governmental authorities, civil society organizations, victims of trafficking and smuggled migrants. South Africa’s response to trafficking in persons is at a critical juncture and therefore proper coordination and role definition of the above mentioned national and provincial structures will be critical to the successful implementation of the National Policy Framework and Implementation Plan.

In the assessment study conducted by the UNODC in 2016, entitled “Responding to Trafficking in Persons and Smuggling of Migrants”, on South Africa, the UNODC made a number of significant observations and recommendations. 
These include, in addition to the challenges that I’ve already mentioned, that training programmes on trafficking have been carried out systematically in the past few years. Yet many partners interviewed expressed a need for more training on TIP and all stakeholders requested training on SOM.  Stakeholders also reported a need to institutionalize training.

We are confident that today’s workshop will indeed go a long way in helping us to address many of these challenges.
At the heart of today’s workshop lies the fact that, for our TIP legislation to work, coordination really is key.

I want to wish you all a very successful workshop – a workshop which will, no doubt, help to foster common knowledge on the Anti-Trafficking National Policy Framework and coordination structures.
It will assist in the review and approval the Terms of Reference of the National Inter-sectorial Committee on Trafficking in Persons, the Provincial Trafficking in Persons Task Teams, and the Provincial Rapid Response Teams.
It is a unique opportunity to exchange good practices on local coordination mechanisms of identification and referral as well as to exchange know-how and good practices on the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) and to, jointly, identify priorities, next steps and measures going forward.

Pope Francis called trafficking a crime against humanity – and he is right.
Like with all crimes against humanity, we must act decisively to rid the world of it.

I thank you.