When I noticed two barefoot boys seated beside a private security vehicle, wearing only their underwear, I stopped to ask what was happening. On the evening of Monday, 5 January, while my friends and I were driving to a garage in the Johannesburg suburb of Mulbarton, I noticed two frail boys seated beside a private security vehicle, wearing only their underwear. When we stopped to ask what was happening, security officers told us the boys had been robbed.
Shortly afterwards, after leaving the garage, on another street, we encountered three more boys in the same condition, again accompanied by private security officers. This time, a security officer said it was suspected that they had been kidnapped. None of the boys could speak English.
My friends and I realised they could be Ethiopian, and we used an app to translate from Amharic to English. We learned that one of them had a passport; the other spoke of his family having wealth to save him. We told the security officers that we had seen two similar victims moments earlier.
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While waiting for more responders, we fetched blankets, food and water for the three boys, who all appeared malnourished and traumatised. Members of the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department’s (JMPD’s) Tactical Response Unit (TRU) and the SA Police Service arrived. They wanted to take the three boys to a nearby police station.
When the boys got up to walk to the van, they could hardly stand, as their feet were injured, probably from running barefoot. The TRU members then waited for the other two boys to be fetched. They said the boys might have been locked up in a basement in a house in the area, and after managing to escape, ran for their lives.
Later, the TRU confirmed that the boys were foreign nationals believed to be victims of a human trafficking operation. With assistance from Fox Security, GTS Security and the Mondeor Community Policing Forum (CPF), authorities ultimately rescued 10 victims and arrested a suspect on charges of kidnapping and human trafficking. The case was registered with the Mondeor police.
A Mulbarton resident, who wished to remain anonymous, said the incident was deeply unsettling. “It is shocking to learn that this kind of thing is happening right under our noses. The quick reaction from the CPF and our security companies is comforting,” said the resident. On Tuesday, the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) said investigations led to the arrest of a 47-year-old foreign national in the Johannesburg CBD and the rescue of 10 teenage boys.
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