Thousands enslaved in SA

Africa cannot rid itself of slavery. The prevalence of modern-day slavery on the continent has been mapped in the inaugural Global Slavery Index compiled by the Walk Free Foundation.

It found that South Africa has as many as 47000 slaves and said the country should work harder to prosecute those guilty of imposing slavery.

Modern-day slavery is defined as one person depriving another of his freedom.

The index found that 20% of the Mauritanian population is enslaved, making Mauritania the country with the highest prevalence of slavery in the world.

Fourteen other African countries join Mauritania among the nations guilty of failing to extirpate slavery, including Benin and Ivory Coast.

Almost 16% of the 29.6million people living in slavery around the world are in sub-Saharan Africa.

The index ranks 160 countries and is weighted to reflect, among other things, the prevalence of slavery as a proportion of population. The higher the ranking, the more prevalent is slavery.

South Africa was ranked 115.

The Walk Free Foundation compiled an additional fact sheet on South Africa, in which the practice of ukuthwala was flagged.

"Ukuthwala is the abduction of young girls with the intention of forcing them into a marriage, or compelling the family to endorse the marriage. Young girls might be subjected to rape and forced to serve their family-in-law," it said.

Katie Sheel, development manager for anti-trafficking organisation A21 Campaign, said that, though South Africa had the legislation with which to prosecute ukuthwala offenders, many families settled out of court.

"We have a lot of work to do in breaking the stigma around this and ensuring that the child is always put first. No one is contesting cultural practices or arranged marriages but when it results in a child being raped by a 40-year-old man under the cover of marriage it needs urgent intervention," said Sheel.

She said ukuthwala had been defined in the Prevention and Combating of Trafficking in Persons Act, signed into law in July.

The Global Slavery Index lauded South Africa's "policies on modern slavery" but the fact sheet said "minimal effort" was put into prosecution: "The government convicted only one offender during the year and investigated two suspects for child labour."