Allow me to express my view on the upcoming court appearance of Pauline Mbangula, which is set to take place on 26 February 2025 in Johannesburg, South Africa.
This is a story that shocked many Namibians, and left others in disbelief of how such a young woman could have possibly swallowed more than 60 ‘bullets’ of cocaine, and made it out alive.
As a nation, who do we blame, or who should take the blame? Definitely, the person who was caught with drugs. Who else? However, have we ever asked ourselves whether this woman might have been a victim of trafficking in persons (TIP)?
What if she had been brainwashed with false promises that excited her to leave the country – not knowing that she was going to be used to smuggle drugs?
One thing we should keep in mind is that most women are very vulnerable.
Hence, they fall into the wrong hands.
Most women tend to become victims of TIP through social media. Nowadays, traffickers use many different techniques to approach their victims, such as pretending to be a potential boyfriend or friend. By doing so, they communicate with their victims through different platforms of social media, such as Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, etc.
There is absolutely no defence to her action. However, we all know that as a country, we are faced with a high unemployment rate, which is one of the reasons why the youth, mostly women, tend to become victims of human trafficking to seek better opportunities.
Yet, one should not only blame the unemployment rate, but also the lack of
awareness of human trafficking from public and private sectors as well as non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
The Namibian government has launched a 2023-2027 Anti-trafficking National Action Plan to guide all stakeholders, NGOs and Faith-Based Organisations (FBOs) to put in efforts to counter TIP in Namibia for the next five years (NAP 2023).
One can say that there is a gap in how the Namibian government, stakeholders and NGOs are involved in educating the Namibian youth on TIP.
Is it, therefore, vital to strengthen partnerships across government officials, stakeholders and
the involvement of NGOs to mitigate TIP, and to magnify efforts to promote public awareness of human trafficking and its risks through organising campaigns and community outreach, especially in rural areas and local languages?
It will also be beneficial to involve previous
TIP victims to educate the youth on how to protect themselves from becoming victims.
Furthermore, prevention of communication barriers should be applied by making information accessible to everyone in all local languages across the regions, as well as formulating approaches on how to communicate with the youth, such as reaching them on social media. Schools should be involved through life skills or a similar programme.
*Anna Shikongo is a social and gender specialist. The views expressed herein are entirely hers, and do not represent those of her affiliations.