Nine sex slave probes in East Cape

SPECIALIST police units have launched nine investigations into human trafficking in the Eastern Cape, with Port Elizabeth and East London the hotspots, according to authorities.

The nine form part of 15 ongoing investigations across the country into criminal activities that include sexual exploitation, drugs and cheap labour.

This emerged in the wake of the conviction last week of a domestic worker who recruited – and rented out – three children in a sex-for-hire scandal involving a farmer in Stutterheim near King William’s Town.

Police said yesterday that just last week they had received a tip that girls from Port Elizabeth had been lured to Pretoria by a trafficking syndicate.

Hawks spokesman Brigadier Hangwane Mulaudzi said East London and Port Elizabeth had been identified as points of operation for traffickers.