Sex-slave horror revealed in human trafficking case

FOR three months, a young woman was held captive and was forced to be a sex slave for two men after they lured her to Gauteng with the promise of employment.

Frank Anaku and and Ilo Samadino are at the centre of a horrific human trafficking case at South Gauteng High Court in Joburg, where they stand accused of kidnapping, prostituting and raping the 21-year-old Upington woman and three others.

While both men have denied the charges, judgment in the matter has been set down for next week.

This week the pair appeared in court to hear their fate, but the presiding judge’s unavailability meant the case was postponed.

The State has alleged in January 2016 the woman met the two men in Upington, where she told the pair about her struggle to find work. They promised her “the good life”, a job and a place to rent in Johannesburg if she agreed to leave her home province.

They organised and paid for her transport to their home in Fourways, but upon arrival, she was barred from leaving the property.

She was allegedly kept alongside three other women who have also claimed they were beaten and subjected to prostituting for the two men.

Stripped of any ability to contact her family, for three months the men forced the woman to have sex with men they would bring to the home under threat that she would be killed. According to the State’s indictment: “The proceeds of sexual acts performed by her were all handed over to the accused. In return she was given drugs.”

But it wasn’t just their clients who would abuse the young women, as the State has also alleged the two men raped the young woman too.

It was only on April 18, 2016 that she was able to secure an outside line to text message her mother, who reported the case to the police, who rescued her and arrested Anaku and Samadino.

State advocate Lwazi Ngodwana, in his closing arguments, explained the horrors of human trafficking in South Africa.

“The purpose of transport (from their home to an unfamiliar place) is to alienate the victim, so that they become more vulnerable and thus easier to exploit.

“Their vulnerability arises from the fact that they do not have close relatives at their destination, do not have money or means to return home and sometimes cannot speak the language, are disadvantaged by their legal status (example being a minor or female) or do not know the environment they find themselves in.”

He continued: “The exploitation stage is at the heart of the crime. The exploitative activity usually begins soon after arrival at the point of destination. Sexual exploitation is most common.”

He was also critical of the defence’s failure to explain why the men had claimed she had laid false human trafficking charges against them, as the woman was not cross-examined on this when she took to the stand.