30 years in jail for trafficking nine women to Oman
HARARE regional magistrate Mr Stanford Mambanje yesterday sentenced to 30 years in prison, a woman who trafficked nine women to Oman.
Caroline Ziyanga (42) was convicted after a full trial and was initially sentenced to 90 years in prison on the nine counts of human trafficking but will serve 30 as some of the counts will run concurrently.
Prosecutor Mr Oscar Madhume proved that sometime in January 2022, Ziyanga connived with one Hamidah to traffic women to Oman for the purposes of labour and sexual exploitation.
She advertised non-existent lucrative jobs in Dubai through friends, relatives, associates, and neighbours.
The women were referred to her as she was known to be assisting people to get employment in Dubai on a promised salary of US$800 per month.
She also told the women about good working conditions which included free accommodation, time off and adequate food.
Acting on that misrepresentation the women accepted the offer as the deal looked lucrative.
Ziyanga would instruct the complainants to send their passport bio data page, passport photos and educational certificates to her mobile phone for processing of travelling documents.
After one week Ziyanga would tell the complainants that she had secured employment in Dubai as nurse aides and that their visas would be out any time.
Ziyanga and her accomplice Hamidah would process and pay for the complainants’visas and air tickets destined for Oman instead of Dubai.
The complainants were then sold to the purported employer before departing Zimbabwe.
The complainants realised that they had been deceived during the course of the journey.
Efforts to communicate with Ziyanga were fruitless as she would have already blocked their contacts in her phone.
Upon arrival in Oman, their passports were confiscated and they started working as house maids instead of nurse aides.
They were subjected to inhuman treatment as they would sleep way after midnight, not given enough food, would survive on leftovers, deprived freedom of movement, not given off days, never got resting time and some were sexually abused.
The crime came to light after one of the complainants was able to access a phone and called her brother based in South Africa who alerted the authorities and Ziyanga was subsequently arrested.
Government intervened and sent an Anti Trafficking Ministerial Committee and the nine were repatriated in the custody of the Department of Social Welfare.
The Government had to pay back compensation to the employers who were keeping the women as slaves at their houses as they claimed that they had bought them.