EC mom and farmer to plead guilty to child prostitution
A STUTTERHEIM mother and farmer yesterday both announced their intention to plead guilty to a string of child prostitution related charges that has shocked the small community.
The woman cannot be named to protect her daughter’s identity while the farmer cannot be named as he is yet to plead.
It is the state’s case that the mother “offered” three under-age girls to the farmer for sex in return for financial compensation.
The pair face 28 charges including sexual exploitation of a child and human trafficking for sexual purposes.
The mother also faces charges for living and benefiting from the earnings of sexual exploitation of a child, and the farmer also faces two counts of rape.
At the time of their arrests in 2014, the woman and farmer were 25 and 59, respectively.
The woman’s daughter was just 11 years old when she was allegedly first offered to the farmer in June 2012 for sexual intercourse.
The Daily Dispatch has learnt the woman then allegedly got her daughter to recruit the two other girls, aged 15 and 11, who were neighbours.
Yesterday the court heard the sexual assault had carried on until January 2014.
It is alleged the farmer would give the woman between R90 and R150 each time and the woman would, allegedly, give the girls R20 each to buy their silence.
The younger brother of one of the girls became jealous when he was not allowed to get into the farmer’s car and complained to his mother about it.
The mother then investigated why her daughter was in the farmer’s car and it emerged the children were being trafficked for sexual purposes.
Yesterday the Stutterheim Court was packed.
Social development MEC Nancy Sihlwayi was in the gallery with community members, relatives, and ANC Women’s League members.
Prosecuting advocate Nomawethu Mvume read 28 charges into the record.
The farmer’s attorney, Neil Ristow, told magistrate Ignatius Kitching his client was going to plead guilty “to all the charges”.
The woman’s attorney, Siyabulela Ntushelo, said she, too, would be pleading guilty to all of the charges she was facing.
Before court proceedings started, hundreds of people including Sihlwayi marched to the court.
Among the group were social workers, members of Masimanyane Women’s Group and community members.
They were marching against human trafficking and sexual abuse of women and children.
The trial resumes today and the plea statements are expected to form part of the court record. The suspects have been remanded in police custody. —
Regional