Inacio Sebastiao Mussanhe

Hearing that girls from his home country of Mozambique were being enslaved in Pretoria, Inacio Sebastiao Mussanhe took action.

A lawyer by trade, he was studying in Pretoria when he came across the information that began his crusade: girls from Mozambique were being held in slavery in an upscale brothel in the South African city. He went undercover to figure out who the traffickers were. He met with the girls, posed as a client, infiltrated brothels, and spoke on the phone with one of the traffickers, who attempted to bribe him for his silence. He refused, and there were death threats and attempts to harm him, but he continued to work on his investigation, involving the South African police. He also turned to several local organization, such as a trafficking shelter and the embassy of Mozambique. The police liberated the girls who were being enslaved, and arrested the traffickers. The case went to court in 2008, although there is no information available as to whether or not the men and women who were trafficking the girls were convicted of any crimes.

In the 2014 TIP Report, Mozambique was listed as a Tier 2 country. It is primarily a source and transit country for both sex trafficking and forced labor. Internal sex trafficking is an issue, as is child prostitution in the major urban areas. Trafficking of Mozambique boys and men for forced labor in South Africa is also a problem. The government has updated its legislation, but its performance remains poor when it comes to victim identification and prosecution of offenders.