Distressed families in limbo as missing persons crisis grips SA

From children who disappear on their way to school to adults who vanish without explanation, South Africa’s missing persons crisis continues to devastate families and expose the country’s vulnerability to organised crime,human trafficking, online grooming and violent crime. The growing number of disappearances has also intensified concerns about South Africa’s ability to respond swiftly after someone goes missing, during the crucial hours when the chances of locating them are highest. A review of South African Police Service (Saps) missing persons records, together with information from Missing Children South Africa and ACT Africa, shows that new cases are reported almost daily.

The Saps Missing Persons database contains dozens of active cases involving adults and children from across the country, illustrating the scale of the challenge. While many missing people are eventually found, countless families endure weeks, months and, in some cases, years of agonising uncertainty. Missing Children South Africa estimates that approximately 77% of missing children are eventually located.

Although encouraging, the figure still means that nearly one in four children reported missing are not immediately reunited with their families. The organisation cautioned that official statistics reveal only part of the picture because many disappearances are never reported. “We do not currently have statistics, but statistics only give us a general indication of the problem because so many cases go unreported.

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Each year we see an increase in children going missing as kidnappings and human trafficking escalate in our country,” said criminologist and Missing Children South Africa national co-ordinator, Bianca van Aswegen. Van Aswegen said that poor supervision and a lack of basic safety precautions also contributed to children disappearing.

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