Global outrage over sexual abuse scandals

Several high-profile sexual abuse cases around the continent have highlighted the fact that women are more vulnerable in war-torn regions and that African children are prey for international paedophiles. However, Legalbrief reports that African law enforcement authorities are working closely with their global counterparts to bring suspects to book. Mozambique has been urged to investigate fresh claims that women have been coerced into having sex to receive food aid in regions hit by a four-year insurgency. Zenaida Machado, a researcher for Human Rights Watch (HRW), said officials in the northern province of Cabo Delgado have been demanding sex with women who should be receiving food aid for free from international humanitarian programmes. ‘This is very widespread. It's a common practice,’ she said, pointing to similarities from an investigation HRW conducted two years ago after a deadly cyclone hit another region. ‘The Mozambican authorities should investigate and appropriately prosecute those using their positions of power to commit these crimes and ensure that women and girls who are fleeing violence get the protection and assistance they need,’ she added. Cabo Delgado has been ravaged by intense violence in recent years which has uprooted least 800 000 people from their homes.

Neighbouring SA is a central hub for sex and human trafficking with girls as young as 10-years-old being targeted, the US Department of State 2021 Trafficking in Persons report has noted, according to IoL. The report said that human traffickers exploited domestic and foreign victims in SA. ‘Traffickers recruit victims from poor countries and poor and/or rural areas within SA, particularly Gauteng Province, and exploit them in sex trafficking locally and in urban centres, such as Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, and Bloemfontein. SA trafficking rings exploit girls as young as 10-years-old,’ the report said. According to the report, traffickers operating in SA were increasingly from Nigeria, the DRC, Cameroon and Ghana. The report said the SA Government did not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but was making significant efforts to do so. These efforts included continuing to prosecute and convict traffickers, sentencing convicted traffickers to substantial terms of imprisonment, and continuing a few investigations into officials allegedly complicit in trafficking.

Also in SA, a former Cape Town police station commander, charged with child pornography and indecent assault, was found dead in his city residence last week, according to the Cape Argus. Zbiegniew Weclaw, a station commander for 21 years and a police member for 30 years, was arrested on 24 November last year, months after a charge was made by his son Daniel Clifford Weclaw in April. Daniel allegedly discovered multiple boxes of DVDs containing child pornography, featuring mostly young boys. Daniel was apparently one of the boys in the videos. An arrest warrant was issued against Weclaw after he failed to present himself at court 10 days ago.

A fugitive sought by the UK for retrial over a raft of sex offence charges has won some relief at SA's Constitutional Court in his battle to stave off extradition. Lee Nigel Tucker enjoyed victory against the Western Cape Director of Public Prosecutions after the two parties had squared off over whether a magistrate that presided in his pre-extradition hearing committed a grave irregularity, notes a report in The Star. This irregularity, Tucker held, was the magistrate’s refusal to hear expert evidence on his claim that he would not get a fair trial in the UK. The former helicopter pilot and IT consultant alleged that the country’s laws discriminated against gay men. The ruling by the magistrate resulted in Tucker being detained at the Pollsmoor Maximum Security Prison, pending a decision by the Justice Minister on his extradition. He was arrested in Cape Town in 2016, 16 years after he fled the UK on the eve of his conviction on charges of sexually assaulting boys between the ages of 12 and 15. The UK’s Court of Appeal quashed his conviction in 2002, after he appealed in absentia, but it ordered a retrial. In 2016, the UK applied for Tucker’s extradition so he could stand trial at the Bristol Crown Court. He faced 42 counts over sexual offences allegedly committed against eight complainants, between 1983 and 1993. These included allegations that he prostituted the boys and also used them for pornographic films.

Police in the Netherlands and Australia have worked with their Namibian counterparts to snare Windhoek resident Johann Maree who has been charged with committing numerous sex crimes with underage boys. He is also accused of selling child pornography. The Namibian reports that Maree (50), a former police officer who rejoined the service as a reservist shortly before his arrest at the end of April last year, launched a bail application two weeks ago. Police commissioner Nelius Becker told Magistrate Celma Amadhila that he received a request from Dutch police when he was the national head of the Criminal Investigations Directorate in 2019. This after a Dutch national was arrested and pornographic material, e-mail messages and records of money transfers were seized. At the same time, he was informed that Australian police were monitoring a site on the 'dark web' with video recordings of boys visiting a bathroom at a public swimming pool in Windhoek. Becker said that during a search of the premises, ‘sexual paraphernalia’ and spy cameras were found. The bail hearing continues today.

And a Rwandan academic and well-known opposition figure has been arrested on allegations of rape. The Investigation Bureau said Rwanda University lecturer Christopher Kayumba has been detained ‘after a period of investigating him for allegations of coercion and sexual misconduct reported by various people’. Bureau spokesperson Thierry Murangira said Kayumba was suspected of rape and attempted rape of two women in 2017 at his residence in the Gasabo District. He said the file iwas being compiled and would be forwarded to the National Public Prosecution Authority for processing. A report on the EWN site notes that Kayumba runs The Chronicles online news portal and he set up a political party in opposition to President Paul Kagame in March.