"We celebrate this Eucharist on the eve of the FIFA world Cup. We seek to draw the attention of all South Africans and our visitors about the plight of children and women who are victims of human trafficking and especially of those who become victims during this world cup event. Such an event, though highly admirable in itself, brings out the worst in some human beings. Men and women without integrity, see an opportunity to make a fortune by selling children and women for sexual pleasures of men who probably care less about the games themselves. As Christians, we must resist with every strength we have this dangerous and degrading form of modern slavery. We do so because we believe firmly that we have been created in the Image of God and that this is the source of our dignity as persons.
Furthermore, we believe that we are our brother’s and sister’s keeper. We have an obligation and a responsibility to uphold the dignity of all especially those who are most vulnerable.
The slogan ‘People first’ ‘Batho Pele’ is consistent with the biblical notion of love, love that involves the real discovery of the other person, a love that becomes a concern and a care for the other, a love that seeks to enhance the human life and human dignity and not the human degradation we see in human trafficking.
The Government says ‘People First’. This is not what they mean in practice. In practice, those who come first are not the least and the vulnerable, but Politicians, heads of state and the mixed bag of so-called dignitaries. They are the ones who will be provided with security and lavished upon, There will be no special protection for those who will be trafficked into slavery for the sexual pleasures of corrupt and depraved men.
It is sheer hypocrisy to claim to protect all people and yet only a few enjoy exceptional protection.
The nobility of a society will be judged by how it protects its vulnerable children and women, instead of displaying it’s security machinery for the world to see by protecting the elite.
Human Trafficking is intrinsically evil. What kind of civilization permits the destruction of life in the womb, imports millions of condoms from Civilised Britain for the world Cup event? Apparently, these games arouse sexual appetite. What kind of a civilization can tolerate forcing Children and women into selling sex? If this is a civilization at all, then it is a decadent civilization.
It was the Father of the Nation, Nelson Mandela who said upon release from prison after 27 years: “Never again shall one human being be oppressed by another!” And yet, women and children are trafficked right under our noses. Some even call for the legalization of prostitution. They want to enshrine in the law, the principle of ‘willing seller, willing buyer’. Children are not willing sellers! The principle has not worked with regard to land, but they are confident that it will work with regard to sex. They argue that you cannot reign in the sexual appetites of Men. This is a private affair. No. This is not a private affair when people are tricked into accepting offers for jobs only to find that they have been recruited for sex. Government resources should be spent on rooting out this form of corruption and slavery. Ordinary people first, not foreign heads of state and their entourages!
Have we, the people of Africa learned nothing from our past? Have we learned nothing from the misery, the oppression of our forefathers and mothers. We down our own brothers and sisters, down once more into the abyss of slavery, destroying their lives, their dignity, their chance to grow in freedom and honour due to each child of God.
We need political will to root out human trafficking. Turning a blind eye to such institutionalised violence strongly suggests complicity. We each have a responsibility to resist and to campaign tirelessly against such evil practices.
We call for a vigorous public awareness of the scourge of human trafficking. Each individual, each parish community, the entire Christian community should stand together in order to campaign against this evil of selling human beings in exchange for sexual favours. This is demeaning to all human beings. We call upon government to stamp out human trafficking.
Finally, lets always remember to pray for victims – the lost to society. St Bakhita, once a slave herself, stolen from her home in the Sudan, put in shackles, sold, resold, finally ending up in Italy. Freed from slavery, she became a Catholic and a nun, dying on 1947. St Bakhita, pray for us."
Archbishop Buti Tlhagale
President
Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference
