South Africa has 158,000 slaves today

Over 158,000 people in South Africa live in modern slavery. Most are economic migrants.

Today there are at least 158,000 people living in slavery in South Africa. This is about 2.7 per 1000. Interestingly, this number is slightly lower then Africa’s average which is 2.9 per 1000. This means that 2 out of every 1000 in South Africa today is living in slavery. To put this in perspective, your school most likely had 1000 students. This means that, when considering averages, 2 people from your school are in slavery today.

Forms of slavery

Of all the 158,000 slaves in South Africa today, the majority are classified as living in either forced labour or forced marriage.

Forced labour means that people are made to work under threat of pay loss or without the freedom to leave. These slaves may be trapped in homes, or in other workplaces such as factories. Forced labour includes forced prostitution.

Forced marriage (typically of girls) in South Africa is often linked to certain cultural customs such as ukuthwala (a form of bride capture). The country’s surveys do not neatly break down how many are in marriage versus labour, but local experts note that forced marriage cases are common.

Identity of slaves

Slaves in South Africa are overwhelmingly women, children and economic migrants. This mirrors the global profile: the latest estimates find that women and girls make up over half of all modern slaves, and children account for about 12 million of the 50 million worldwide.

A large portion of South Africa’s enslaved often come from rural areas or neighbouring countries as economic migrants. One report states that traffickers target people from “rural areas within South Africa” and also recruit across borders from places like Mozambique, DRC and Nigeria.

Migrant workers worldwide are about three times more likely to be in forced labour than local workers. In South Africa’s gold-mining bust, all the rescued children were undocumented migrants from Mozambique. Similarly, Basotho and other foreign workers have been noted in cases of domestic servitude and other forms of labour.

The response

A driver of modern slavery in South Africa is South Africa’s current political and economic model.

Decision-making remains concentrated in a small group of oligarchs, with limited space for local autonomy or accountability. This unitary state model has produced a top-heavy system ill-equipped to tackle slavery. A way forward would be a radical decentralization of power; returning decision-making to local communities, allowing them to build resilience and protect themselves from exploitation.

Compounding this imbalance is South Africa’s dependence on cheap, mobile labour. Migrant workers are continually shifted to meet economic demands, sustaining key industries but undermining community stability. The result is an economy that relies on the controlled movement and exploitation of workers. A more sustainable path would be a middle-class–centred economic model, one that rewards stability, local wealth creation, and long-term investment rather than transient, low-cost labour.