Police in South Africa have rescued fifty seven Malawian children from the hands of human traffickers.
The young Malawians who are between the ages of 11 and 21 are now at a place of safety in the rainbow nation, Malawi24 understands. 
According to reports, in the early hours of Tuesday, two police officers spotted a white ‘delivery’ truck travelling at high speed in Rustenburg in South Africa.
In the front seats of the truck were the driver and two other people.
When they were stopped they refused to answer questions related to what they were transporting and refused to open the back.
When officers forced open the back of the truck, two children fell to the ground.
Officers found 18 young Malawian girls and 39 boys inside the enclosed back, which had a makeshift window at the top. Undocumented and shaken – the group was immediately taken to a place of safety.
“They are well looked after and the Department of Social Development will do justice. Immediately after they were found, they were to be taken for assessments or treatments,” said acting national police commissioner, Khomotso Phahlane.
Details of their travel is still sketchy and authorities say they are investigating. It is unclear how long they had been on the road, how they crossed the border, what their intended destination was and exactly what they were trafficked for.
The driver and two passengers, who are Malawians by nationality, were arrested at this point.
“They were arrested for human trafficking. The suspects appeared briefly at the Rustenburg regional magistrate’s court on Tuesday – their case has been postponed to 13 September 2016 – facing 57 counts of human trafficking,” said Phahlane.
South African authorities have since disclosed that they are working with Malawian officials in their investigations.
UPDATE
By December 2016, the Malawi government confirmed the trafficked Malawians would be repatriated by 13th December 2016.
63 thoughts on “57 Malawian children rescued from human traffickers in SA”
Comments are closed.
Let me comment like this those are bushit people from our country they call that ma transpoter timaona ngati kubwela kuno ku SA timagwilisa the way we call smagleling koma ndikulakwa heavy zoona anthuwo sikuti traffikers mayaz koma akuthawa mavuto kumuziko coz enawo ndi akuluakulu but any gd protect them coz ineso ndidayendako ulendo umenewo akadatigwila tikaveka ngati nyasiso coz tidali ambili 150 just imagne
Khani iyi yapereka chitima chomene kumutundu wa Malawi .achewa mumati atumbuka mulibe zeru koma izi za chokera kuti kupoto kapena kumwera.zovesa chisoni kwambiri .
Too bad for malawians,its wat we deserve anyway
Ana awawa sikutidi adangowazembetsa koma ndi chifukwa cha mavuto. Ndani sakudziwa za njala, umphawi momwe wavutira. Asavutike ndi kuganiza izi ndi izizi ayi pepani alekeni ana akafune ntchito ukoko ku Joni.Omwe ali odya bwinonu mukuti akuzembetsa ana, ayi. Amvetsetseni anthuwo chonde, chonde.Umphawi umawawa asayeni anthuwo akaone zina.