The return of eight undocumented Zimbabwean children who were smuggled into South Africa in November last year through Beitbridge Border Post, has been put on hold following a court application by their parents seeking to block their return.
Through their lawyer, Advocate Simba Chitando, the parents filed an urgent chamber application at the Pretoria High Court seeking an order interdicting the South African Department of Social Development from repatriating their children. The children were travelling in a truck to join their parents in Cape Town for the Christmas holiday. The truck was intercepted at a service station in Rustenburg after police received a tip-off by people who suspected that the minors were victims of human trafficking.
In papers before the court, Advocate Chitando argued that the parents knew that their children were in the truck. He said the parents were also aware that their children were being brought into South Africa and they have the children’s birth certificates.
More: Chronicle
Why are the parents using trucks to transport children? If the children were coming for Xmas, now Xmas has gone past and children needs to go back to school. To be honest I have always suspected that this was not a case of Child trafiking, but a deliberate and planed way of taking kids to SA. My only problem with this is and have always wondered, why are parents not applying for the right documents and allow these kids to travel using legal means? A passport and bus fare costs less money than the money they pay for the Truck drivers, let alone the Lawyers who are now being paid exobitant fees. There is something wrong with our thinking in Zimbabwe. We need to change.
In fact I think both government and NGOs need to sencitise diasporans on the need to get right documents for their kids. Am talking about passports here.