In the most recent cases, Hawks officers today rescued 26 Ethiopian citizens who were being held captive in a house in the town of Sandringham, in the city of Johannesburg, who hours earlier had managed to escape from the captivity in which they were being held by criminal syndicates.

In this regard, Hawks spokesman Philani Nkwalase explained that victims of human trafficking are constantly exchanged between different organized crime groups.

People are trafficked in their own country, others are trafficked in their own province or city, he said.

For example, he said, someone from Pretoria can be taken from Hammanskraal and held against their will here in the city center.

Therefore, he concluded, there is a mechanism of using and reusing kidnapped people for different purposes. Human trafficking in South Africa, he stressed, is a very serious problem.

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