Coming up on
Special Assignment this week:
Episode title: Survival Sex
Broadcast date: Thursday, 30 August 2012
Teaser ...
In the dusty streets of Diepsloot - an informal settlement north west of Johannesburg and adjacent to the affluent suburb of Fourways - impoverished residents continue to live in squalor.
With few basic services and high unemployment rates, this community - like so many other informal settlements across South Africa - remains plagued with social ills.
It’s also here where many young girls have resorted to prostitution for their daily survival. They sell their young bodies to men from the community in exchange for meagre hand-outs such as food and petty-cash.
Child prostitution is reportedly growing at an alarming rate in South Africa. The NGO, Network Against Child Labour estimates that 400 000 children are engaged in child labour and many girls are forced or sold into prostitution. Police statistics also paint a bleak picture: it’s believed that 28 000 children are engaged in prostitution across the country.
This Special Assignment investigation reveals the faces behind these shocking statistics. The show follows Melissa, a 17-year old girl, who dreams of finishing school.
She moved from rural Kwandebele to Gauteng after her mother’s death two years ago, in search for a better future. But she finds herself alone in Diepsloot, where everybody around her seems to be scrambling to survive. Melissa believes her only means of making it from day to day is through prostitution.
18-year old Karabo’s story is also one of despair. While her mother struggles to feed the family at home, Karabo's been lured into prostitution, seeing it as the only way out of the desperate situation she finds herself in.
Where is the Department of Social Development in the bigger picture? Why is society turning a blind eye? And what chances do our country’s young girls have if they’re forced into survival sex with their innocence lost?
Survival Sex is produced by Godknows Nare.
Special Assignment is on SABC3 on Thursdays at 21h00.