Cape Town - South Africa has been considered as one of the most popular destinations for travelling child sex offenders in Africa.
A global study on the sexual exploitation of children in travel and tourism was released in Stellenbosch, Thailand and Washington on Friday.
End Child Porn, Prostitution and Trafficking (Ecpat), an organisation and global network of civil organisations that dedicates its time to ending the commercial sexual exploitation of children, named the Western Cape, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and the Eastern Cape as the hotspots in the country.
Cape Town, Joburg and Durban were also highlighted as hotspots with Beaufort West also being mentioned.
Of the 49 child pornography cases in South Africa, 26 made it to court and only nine resulted in a conviction.
Twelve of the reported cases were in the Western Cape, with 18 cases in Gauteng.Ecpat International Co-ordinator for Africa Catherine Mbengue said that the four African countries scrutinised – South Africa, Ghana, Zambia and Kenya – showed a glimpse of what is happening on the African continent.
“No country is immune. The presence of this is everywhere in the world. Places that were not hotspots are now hotspots. The number of offenders has multiplied exponentially over the last 20 years.”
Mbengue said that while there has been an increase of offenders, there has also been some improvement in policies and laws in Africa. She said people need to get on board and help with reporting crimes related to child sex trafficking.
“We need to be more aware, we need to stop pretending we don’t know. We need to realise it is a concern and it is not only morally wrong, but it is also a crime.”
National Executive Director, PJ Cloete said that South Africa in particular is failing children as many people tend to ignore the problem.
“What is scary is that this is occurring across the board. Yes, men dominate as perpetrators, but it is now across the board.”
He said more needs to be done to make significant changes to the number of perpetrators being successfully convicted.
“There is this belief that it is not happening right here in our own backyard. We cannot allow people to walk out of our courts despite the fact that they are perpetrators.”
The report identified girls, especially from poor, single parent families and orphaned children as the most likely victims. The internet played a large role in pimps, traffickers and intermediaries contacting and reaching their victims.