Posted: 2006-10-31 22:50:13
Hi guys,
Ever so often I see a newspaper article or a documentary on tv that features foriegners exploiting our children, especially here in Cape Town. It seems however that the media is portraying South Africa as a haven for sex tourists seeking underage girls and that these sex tours are well organised by crime syndicates, hotels and brothel owners as well as poverty playing a role in young girls turning to prostitution to feed their families.
I have been doing the rounds for years, starting with street pickups and moving on to escort agencies and now the web. In those years I can only recall one instance where a girl I saw on the street looked to me to be underage. Other than that I have never experienced or been exposed to any other forms of child prostitution which surprises me as these media claims that it is so prevelant. For example, the German tourist that got busted for picking up underage girls in Macassar. I didn't even know that this was happening in that area and I consider myself pretty clued up on the general prostitution scene in CT. How do these foreigners know where to exploit children? Who is feeding them this information and why are we as locals so unaware of this?
You might be wondering where I'm going with this and I'll tell you, in 4 years we are going to be hosting an international event. We are going to be flooded with tourists and if what I'm hearing about the child sex trade in this country is true, we are going to see child exploitation on a level never before seen in this country and my fear is that it will be the gateway to turning this already impoverished country into another underage sex capital like Thailand.
What are your thoughts on this? To me personally, and I'm sure a few of you will disagree or maybe even agree, this is yet another reason why we should NOT be hosting the 2010 World Cup. This country is not ready on so many levels.
Peace...