Time on the journey varied enormously, with some children knowing from the time they left
home that the CMM was their destination, with others ending up there purely by chance, and
after many other experiences. The swiftness of many of these journeys is testimony to the
well‐established transport networks that now exist from even remote parts of Zimbabwe to
Johannesburg.
Some minors heard of the CMM on arrival in Musina, and one child was put on to a taxi by a
South African soldier in Musina, who told the driver to take the child directly to the CMM! In
another instance, a taxi driver took one of the children directly to the CMM, on hearing from
the child that he had nowhere to stay on arrival in Johannesburg. Several of the children
commented that they had wanted to come to the CMM because they had heard that then they
could go to Albert Street School.
Surprisingly, 22% of the children accomplished the journey in a straight run, taking 2 or 3
days from door to door ‐ while one child had taken 2 years to end up at the CMM.
Generally, it was enlightening to learn how comparatively quickly an unaccompanied
minor is able to travel vast distances. However, one may also assume that the minors that
end up at the CMM may be among the most competent and organized minors in the country.
There are far greater numbers of minors who do not make it beyond Musina and the farms of
Limpopo.119
18 children made their total journey in less than 3 days (22%)
another 10 did the trip in less than a week, and a further 13 in less than two weeks
this means that 50% of these children ended up at the CMM after less than two weeks
of traveling.
32 took from 4 to 6 weeks (39%)
6 children took 2 to 6 months for the trip (7%)
1 child had taken 2 years, and two could not indicate how long they had been on route.
c. Length of time in border area
There is a large group of unaccompanied minors in Musina, and the authors were interested
to establish whether any of their interviewees had been part of this group for any time, or had
any experience of life in the border area. However, only 6 of these 82 children reported having
spent a month or more in the border area. Although 17 of the children had spent more than a
month completing their trip to the CMM, most of these had spent lengths of time elsewhere
than in Musina, although where is not clear as the question was not asked.
d. Bribes and payments
The children were asked whether they had had to pay anyone or bribe anyone on their
journey.
36 reported having made payments to people
22 of these payments were bribes, and 14 were payments in the form of fares for
transport
10 reported having to bribe, or having money stolen, by the “magumaguma”, or cross
border touts
119 Op cit, also the Skelton report, ibid.
57
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