In South Africa a child goes missing every five hours
According to Psaru's 2016 annual missing person report, 56 per cent of people who went missing were under the age of 21
A child goes missing every five hours in South Africa. This is the reality the country is facing.
According to the People Search and Rescue Unit’s (Psaru) 2016 annual missing person report, 56 per cent of people who went missing were under the age of 21, and 72 per cent of these people went missing in Gauteng.
These are only the statistics from the beginning of the year until May 31, meaning even more people have been reported missing since then.
Chances of men going missing are almost equal to women, with 52 per cent of women going missing and men sitting at 48 per cent.
With spine-chilling numbers such as these, organisations specialising in finding missing persons are much-needed in the country.
In comes Psaru, a registered company based in Glen Marais that specialises in finding missing persons.
Psaru offers a 24/7 helpline for immediate assistance and once a person has been reported missing, a specialised investigation team is immediately dispatched into the field to find the person.
When the organisation first started in 2012, it was for the purpose of finding missing children.
“But we realised there was a need to expand because many people were calling us about adults going missing, grown men and women and older citizens,” CEO of Psaru, Charmaine van Eeden, said.
The team recently helped find two brothers who went missing after leaving their Springs home to look for work.
The reasons why people go missing vary from case to case but the major reasons are abductions and human trafficking, which is one of the biggest issues the world is facing.
“There are also many cases where kids run away from home. The problem is if they are not found quickly and taken back home, chances are they will end up being abducted and used as prostitutes,” Van Eeden explained.
Unfortunately, not all cases end well. Some people are found deceased and very rarely, a person’s whereabouts becomes a permanent mystery.
“The most haunting cases for me are the ones which turn cold and we never solve. With cold cases, it could either mean a person is not found for years, leading the case to be deemed cold; then only years later remains are discovered. Then the case can be closed. Or in some situations, a person is just never found. All it means is the family never finds closure about their loved ones,” Psaru investigator, Wynand Pretorius, sombrely expressed.
It’s not only the families that go through the pain. The investigators also bear the brunt of having a case that ends in mystery.
For example, the team once had a case of a husband who went missing and was never found. His wife had last seen him when she left for work in the morning, leaving him at home. The team followed leads that pointed towards Hartbeespoort, where only the man’s vehicle was found and nothing else.
However, on a lighter note, with 89 per cent of missing adults and children found alive, it shows the massive and significant role an organisation such as Psaru plays in reuniting families with their loved ones.
Because Psaru is a small organisation, it relies on membership fees from its clients in order to carry out search and rescue operations.
The benefit of becoming a registered member is as soon as you or a loved one is reported missing, search operations can begin immediately.
For more information, contact Psaru on 0860-287-223 or visit www.psaru.co.za.
