VZCZCXRO4625
RR RUEHDU RUEHJO
DE RUEHSA #2454/01 3111404
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 061404Z NOV 08
FM AMEMBASSY PRETORIA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 6356
INFO RUEHOR/AMEMBASSY GABORONE 5382
RUEHSB/AMEMBASSY HARARE 3748
RUEHTO/AMEMBASSY MAPUTO 5966
RUEHTN/AMCONSUL CAPE TOWN 6236
RUEHDU/AMCONSUL DURBAN 0379
RUEHJO/AMCONSUL JOHANNESBURG 8591

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PRETORIA 002454 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PGOV KTIP PHUM SF
SUBJECT: TIP INTERIM ASSESSMENT: SAG GAINING MOMENTUM 
 
REF: A. STATE 110849 
     ¶B. PRETORIA 1926 
     ¶C. PRETORIA 2249 
 
------- 
Summary 
------- 
 
¶1.  To combat trafficking in persons (TIP), South Africa is 
active across multiple fronts -- from legislation and 
prosecution, to training and development of response 
procedures, to victims' support and public awareness 
campaigns.  While passage of a draft anti-TIP law remains the 
key hurdle to mobilizing a comprehensive effort, in the 
meantime other interim legislation is used to bring offenders 
to trial.  In anticipation of TIP legislation, the IOM and 
SAG are conducting workshops nationwide for already over 
1,500 social workers, government officials, law enforcement 
officers, and members of the public to improve victim 
identification and increase assistance referrals.  Training 
is intended to be rolled out to all SAG branches within 18 
months.  Publicity campaigns are already yielding dramatic 
increases in volumes of cases referred to IOM helplines.  End 
Summary. 
 
----------------------------------- 
TIP Bill Pending; Other Laws in Use 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶2.  Comprehensive anti-TIP legislation remains in draft, but 
there are encouraging developments on the legal front.  The 
Law Reform Commission completed its text of the TIP Bill, 
with consultations within government conducted and 
incorporated into the text.  The draft was submitted to the 
newly appointed Minister of Justice, M.E. Surty, who has 
named TIP as his personal priority.  Parliament's agenda is 
full for 2008, and its work in 2009 will be disrupted by 
elections and ensuing midyear changeovers, but with the MoJ's 
strong backing we are hopeful the TIP bill will be voted on 
next year.  The Sexual Offences Act, with its interim 
provisions against TIP for sexual exploitation, came into 
force in December 2007, with a first TIP-related prosecution 
opened in May 2008.  It joins the Prevention of Organized 
Crime Act (POCA) used against trafficking syndicates.  Draft 
regulations for the Children's Act of 2005 were opened to 
public comment in June.  While these laws can be applied to 
various aspects of TIP offenses, official crime statistics 
will not record prosecutions as TIP cases until the formal 
TIP law provides the framework to do so. 
 
--------------------------------------- 
Workshops Aid Recognition and Referrals 
--------------------------------------- 
 
¶3.  The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) is spearheading 
SAG efforts on TIP, with support from the International 
Organization for Migration (IOM) and funding from the 
European Union.  Even while awaiting a TIP law, the NPA and 
IOM tell us there is a new energy and momentum in anti-TIP 
activity this year.  From July 2007 to August 2008 the IOM 
conducted 15 workshops to train 398 social workers mainly 
from the Department of Social Development, which aims to 
develop case management guidelines by March 2009.  Foreign 
Affairs has asked for similar training for its consular 
officers abroad.  Since July 2008 IOM has trained 679 SAG 
officials, from Social Development (155), law enforcement 
(186 - mainly police and prosecutors), border officers (283), 
and Health (55), as well as 32 media professionals.  SAG 
workshops will continue through 2009, emphasizing coordinated 
responses across government agencies, NGOs, and the public. 
After an intensive five-day IOM course, 58 representatives of 
NGOs and church charities were certified as TIP trainers by 
QNGOs and church charities were certified as TIP trainers by 
conducting onward two-day workshops in their provinces.  A 
total of 30 awareness-raising workshops across all nine 
provinces drew 573 community participants.  IOM's curriculum 
is being reviewed for SAG accreditation and institutionalized 
roll-out across the SAG within 18 months. 
 
¶4.  TIP awareness training has improved recognition of 
trafficking victims, boosted referrals of cases to 
authorities, and improved care and attention to victims. 
Before this year, according to IOM, hotline calls came almost 
exclusively from alert NGOs, while police tended to arrest 
TIP victims, charge them with crimes (like prostitution), and 
send them home.  Now as social workers, police, and border 
officials are trained to recognize signs of trafficking, 
referrals are coming from a wide array of sources.  The 
 
PRETORIA 00002454  002 OF 002 
 
 
Children's Act explicitly requires referral of suspected 
child trafficking cases to designated social workers, who 
must investigate and report the cases to children's courts. 
Since January 2004 the IOM has directly assisted 252 TIP 
victims, of which the largest groups were Thai (140), 
Congolese (35), South African (22), Indian (12), and Chinese 
(11).  Assistance to victims of sexual exploitation is 
coordinated with the NPA's Sexual Offences and Community 
Affairs (SOCA) unit, whose shelters provide health and 
justice services to women victims of rape and sexual assault. 
 
----------------------------- 
Awareness Campaigns Expanding 
----------------------------- 
 
¶5.  The SAG, IOM, and NGOs continue to expand 
awareness-raising activities.  More than 85,000 
countertrafficking posters and brochures in six languages 
were distributed in local towns during IOM's training 
workshops, publicizing the IOM's toll-free helpline.  A TV ad 
aired in September drew 576 referral calls, five times the 
usual volume.  A Catholic nuns' group has drafted a school 
curriculum.  In inner city areas of Johannesburg, local NGO 
Khulisa has educated communities to detect trafficking, and 
it is creating "referral map" posters for citizens to contact 
authorities.  The new Justice Minister has proposed making 
TIP a central issue in the next annual "16 Days of Activism" 
campaign, with the busy transport route between Maputo and 
Koomatiport a candidate for an anti-TIP roadshow.  A newly 
released IOM survey on domestic TIP, and a regional one soon 
to be launched, will further raise public awareness of the 
issue and provide authorities with useful information on TIP 
flows, patterns, and modus operandi.  While there is no 
anti-TIP plan specific to the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the event 
is very much on the minds of border officials and other 
front-line government workers, who raise the issue for 
discussion in IOM workshops.  Legalization of prostitution 
for 2010 is not a popular idea among the public, as far as we 
can assess. 
 
BOST