Parents have certificates of detained kids

THE parents of eight Zimbabwean children being detained in an unknown location by the Department of Social Development have birth certificates proving the children are their own.

This is according to Advocate Simba Chitando‚ who is representing the children.

The department wants to repatriate the children‚ aged between two and 12‚ who entered South Africa without travel documents.

They were travelling on November 11 from Zimbabwe to join their parents in Cape Town for Christmas. There were adults in the vehicle, a truck that was intercepted at a Rustenburg garage after observers assumed they were victims of human trafficking.

The children have not seen their parents since November and are not allowed to speak to them.

The department holds the view the children were being trafficked but Chitando disputes this‚ saying the parents knew they were on the truck‚ that they were being brought into the country and that the parents have the children’s birth certificates.

Lumka Oliphant‚ the spokeswoman for Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini‚ has not responded to queries‚ but earlier told TV news channel eNCA reporters that the department could not confirm they were the parents.

She said the department planned to send the children to Zimbabwe next month.

Chitando went to court on February 14 and provided affidavits from the parents pleading to be united with their children. Social development officials did not respond or appear in court.

The judge ruled that the office of the family advocate had to investigate the matter. —