South Africans are going missing in numbers daily and experts are warning depression resulting from dire economic circumstances and human trafficking could be among the key reasons behind the disappearance of people, including adult males.
Experts also warn that children are fleeing their homes to escape child abuse.
“Going missing can happen to anyone at any time, so we need to be vigilant of our surroundings,” warned Bianca Van Aswegen, a criminologist and national coordinator for Missing Children South Africa.
“We have seen an increase in child abuse, which is why children run away from home. We have kidnappings that happen such as opportunistic kidnappings, ransom and traditional medicine/muthi related [abductions] and in some cases we find human
trafficking and children who are mentally unstable that wander off and get lost,” said Van Aswegen.
Jacqui Thomas, director and co-founder of Pink Ladies, an organisation assisting with finding missing people, told Sunday World that from July 1 to July 17 this year, her organisation received reports of 26 people who had gone missing. Of this number, 19 were adults and seven children. Of the 19 missing adults, 15 were male.
“The number of missing young men that we are dealing with is absolutely astronomical,” said Thomas, adding this has been a trend for the past four years. A large portion of them are people who cannot handle the pressure anymore and are just trying to get away.
“You can imagine, someone who was a breadwinner and was able to always provide for their family or who must take a job with a much lower income. There’s all kinds of depression and anxiety going on.
“Some of them just go missing or leave with the intention of killing themselves. We have had such cases. And it is difficult to find someone who doesn’t want to be found,” she said.
“Men are providers, that’s what they are brought up to do, that is part of their makeup.
“For a man between the ages of 25 and 50 to suddenly have his job taken away, losing his home, unable to provide for their families, becomes a problem.
“They are taught that big boys don’t cry. Their way of dealing with it is to get away from it,” she said.
Steven King of SA Community Crime Watch noted there is definitely an increase in the number of males missing but added that a thorough study needs to be conducted.
King said many factors could be contributing to the high number of males going missing, including crime and imprisonment.
Senior training coordinator and researcher at the Institute for Security Studies, Willem Els, identified human trafficking as one of the primary causes of people going missing where they are used in forced labour, illicit sex trade and ritual killings for the illegal trade in human tissue.
“Children are the most vulnerable. The perpetrators focus on the weakest people such as children. A lot of children go missing in places such as the Western Cape. The children and women are human trafficked for the sex trade and for trafficking of drugs whereby they turn into drug mules,” said Els.
However, criminologist at Stellenbosch University Dr Guy Lamb said the main reasons people go missing is due to mental health and criminal activities.
“When people have mental health disorders such as depression and schizophrenia, they decide to leave their homes and end up living on the streets,” he said.
“The other way that people go missing is when they fall prey to scams on social media. Usually, when people go missing, they are kidnapped from their homes on their way to work, or on their way home or on their way to the shops. The kidnappers plan the kidnapping, and monitor the victim before executing the crime,” said Lamb.
On Friday before midday, Sunday World did a count of the top 230 listed missing people on the South Africa Police Service missing persons list page.
Out of the 230, 171 were adult males, 42 were adult women, 14 were children aged between 10 and 18 and four were children under 10 years.
At the time of the count, the list contained 2 952 names.
