SA drug mules used as sex slaves
Left in the lurch by consulate, SA women in Maputo jail trade their bodies for food, basics and legal aid
MORE than a dozen South African women are being forced to suffer shocking conditions and sexual exploitation in a Mozambican jail — and South Africa’s government is doing nothing to protect them.
Warders demand sex in exchange for soap or bread and the women are denied the most basic necessities, including toothpaste, as they survive on a meagre diet of rotten beans and fish. They are also subjected to constant sexual abuse.
The 15 women were arrested when they landed at Maputo International Airport transporting drugs from Brazil or India. A Sunday Times investigation established that:
One of the prisoners, identified only as Andiswa, died in 2012 after she could not get proper medical care;
Ouma Thoko Maleke, who was arrested on December 9 2011 and sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment, gave birth almost two years ago. Her child has never seen the outside world;
Nozipho Ikegihagu, who was arrested on September 9 2013, is eight months pregnant and spent 40 days in solitary confinement after an attempted escape in January; and
Two other South African women, Adelaide Nxele and Phumzile Eunice Nkabinde, managed to escape but their whereabouts are unknown.
In a letter smuggled from Cadeia Central de Maputo, Maputo’s central prison, to the Sunday Times, an inmate claims some of the women are sexually abused by warders who promise to release them sooner in exchange for sex — but they renege on the agreement.
This was confirmed by several inmates during a visit by Sunday Times reporters to the
The warders are taking advantage of our horrific situation for their own pleasure
prison this week, and off-duty warders were seen visiting prisoners they described as their “girlfriends”.
“Every night, girls are taken from the cells and forced to have sex with a warder. You can cry and scream, but nobody will come to your rescue,” said one of the women.
“Sometimes, girls are forced to have sex with the warders in exchange for bread or bathing soap. Things are tough here — we are just sex slaves and not prisoners,” said another.
“We are women and need basic things like pads, and you are not getting any of that here without opening your legs to someone,” said one. “The warders are taking advantage of our horrific situation for their own pleasure.”
Said another inmate: “One girl was forced to have sex in court to obtain a translator.”
Many of the women claimed they were eligible for parole or had completed their sentences, but they had to pay bribes they cannot afford for their release. State-appointed lawyers, they said, extorted fees of up to R100 000 for services that should be free.
The women said they had been abandoned by South Africa’s consular services, which did nothing to alleviate their suffering or secure their rightful release.
Thandeka Florence Radebe was arrested when she was caught with cocaine as she
landed in Maputo from India on September 26 2011 and received a two-year sentence. Although she completed her sentence on September 26 2013, she has not been released because she cannot afford to pay the R10 000 warders are demanding for the food that she has eaten while she has been in prison.
The Sunday Times investigation established that Nkabinde and two Zambian nationals, Cynthia Mkandawire and Grander Mkanjo, escaped from prison on June 26 2013 — allegedly after bribing a warder with R20 000.
Nxele was released in December after serving two years of her sentence, but she was kept under house arrest in Mozambique. She escaped two weeks ago and her whereabouts are unknown.
Thoko Maleke was pregnant when she was arrested in Maputo in December 2011. She gave birth in prison.
Her mother, Elizabeth, from Smithfield in the Free State, said she had tried to convince her daughter to send her 20month-old son to an orphanage in Johannesburg or let the boy’s father look after him, but she refused.
“She told me: ‘I’m in prison because of the boy’s father. He doesn’t even send me toiletries. He doesn’t care. I want my child to stay with me.’ ”
Promise Mpala was arrested on December 23 2011 when she was caught in possession of cocaine on a flight from India. She was sentenced to three years in prison. Her mother, Pretty Mpala, said her daughter called in December 2012 to say she was working for a Nigerian shop owner who was sending her to India to buy clothes for the Christmas season.
“I asked her if it was safe and she said that these people had told her: ‘Welcome to riches.’ ”
Patricia Gerber, who runs a nongovernmental organisation monitoring prisoners’ rights, said embassy officials were not doing enough to protect the rights of South African citizens in foreign jails.
“They should be visiting them more often to make sure their human rights aren’t being violated,” she said.
South Africa’s international relations spokesman, Nelson Kgwete, declined to comment.
Mozambican police had not responded at the time of going to press. “We [are] busy compiling a detailed report with other sections of the government based on the questions that you sent to us,” a spokesman said yesterday.