Eastern Cape Social Development MEC, Nancy Sihlwayi, has welcomed the jail sentences imposed on a farmer and local woman in a child sex case.
The 60-year-old farmer and a domestic worker, reportedly 36-year-old, pleaded guilty on Thursday to 28 charges in the Stutterheim Magistrate's Court.
These included sexual exploitation of a child and human trafficking for sexual purposes.
The woman had offered her 11-year-old daughter to the farmer for sexual purposes and also got the child to procure two other children for the farmer.
The farmer was jailed for 15-years while the woman will spend the next 12 years behind bars.
In a statement on Thursday, MEC Sihlwayi said "his will serve as a deterrent for those who were contemplating this barbaric act," said Sihlwayi.
She also encouraged members of the public to report such cases to authorities so that a safer environment can be secured for children who she says "are the future."
The EC Department of Social Development's help line to report such cases is 080-003-2364 (toll-free)
