Nduduzo Tshuma Senior Reporter
BEITBRIDGE Senator Cde Tambudzani Mohadi (Zanu-PF) has said the girl child is exposed to HIV due to rampant human trafficking by a notorious syndicate at the border town.
Contributing to a debate on the findings of a report of the thematic committee on peace and security on the status of the country’s borders, human trafficking and smuggling on Wednesday, Cde Mohadi said the informal borders were being abused by smugglers and human traffickers.

She said undesignated points used by locals to visit their relatives between South Africa and Zimbabwe around Beitbridge were being used as informal borders.

“People end up using those informal border posts as crossing points whenever they want to smuggle through their stuff such as cigarettes

and drugs,” said Cde Mohadi.
“When they don’t want to go through the official borders, they use these routes so that they do not declare their goods and as a result, the government is losing a lot of money. Apart from losing a lot of money, you will find that a lot of people are dying across these borders.”
Cde Mohadi said there were incidents of armed robberies between smugglers of cigarettes and drugs.

She said a lot of school-going children end up not going to school but cross the border into South Africa at ages as young as 12 or 13 to seek employment as farm labourers.

“You find that the girl child that we are talking about mostly, when they go to cross these rivers, the first port of call when they get to the river there should be somebody who will assist them to cross the river and this someone who assists this girl to cross the river, the girl has to fall in love with him or raped because she will not be having money to pay the person who will assist her to cross the river,” said Cde Mohadi.

She said after crossing the river, the girl would be vulnerable to men who offer them shelter and employment.
“Mr President, the girl has zero education and secondly, the issue of HIV/Aids is also another problem because through these three men I have talked about, you do not even know how safe that sex was,” Cde Mohadi said.

“It is a very pathetic situation and really, government has to try and do something to curb this issue.”
Cde Mohadi said she once witnessed an incident of human trafficking when she was using public transport to Beitbridge.

“Just about five kilometres, the bus just stopped in the middle of nowhere and that is human trafficking now. There were some women, about five or 10 with children.

“I got so worried and asked where these women were going because there were no houses around that place. They said, no, do not ask so many questions, we know where they are coming from,” she said.

“Immediately they approached a kombi and it collected all these women to these informal border posts and they crossed the river at night.”

Cde Mohadi said while it was a good gesture that people from both countries could visit their relatives through informal borders, the process, “has turned out to be a nasty project altogether.”

Matabelelalnd North Senator Cde Thokozile Mathuthu weighed in saying it was saddening that perpetrators on the abuse of the girl child were known but nothing was done to them.

“I don’t agree that the girl child will be in love with the people who abuse her; she is raped and has no choice because of the circumstances,” said Cde Mathuthu.

“She will be raped by the driver, the one who will help her in crossing, the one who will give her shelter and also the employer. Even when they are supposed to be paid, you realise that they will arrest everyone without a permit staying in that country towards pay days.

“The same person who will arrest you will also rape you. At the end of it all, when you are released, you would not have survived from HIV/Aids.”

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