By A Correspondent- South Africa’s Border Management Authority (BMA) says 443 unaccompanied children were intercepted at the Beitbridge Border Post allegedly being trafficked into the country from Zimbabwe on Saturday night.

Speaking during a media briefing on Sunday, BMA commissioner Michael Masiapato said that the children are being returned to Zimbabwe. He said:

A sting operation was conducted by the border guards, the Home Affairs anti-corruption team as well as members of the South African Police Service at the Beitbridge border post.

It is believed the children were going to join their parents for the Christmas holidays after schools closed on 01 December.

They were able to stop and search about 42 buses trying to enter the republic and out of that we found 443 children under the age of eight that were in those buses without any parent or any guardian. They were being trafficked into South Africa.

Masiapato said the children were denied entry “and we activated the Zimbabwean officials to process them back into Zimbabwe.”