Child sex slave

ABANDONED by her mother, repeatedly raped and later impregnated by her stepfather, a teenage girl is battling to pick up the pieces of her life.

The Swaziland teenager was trafficked into South Africa in 2015 and resided with her stepfather and two siblings in Jozini.

Now 18 years old, the young woman, who spent a year in a place of safety in Ngwelezana, is trying to recover from her trauma while the man who destroyed her life is currently appealing his life sentence in the Durban High Court

The man, who raped and impregnated his stepdaughter, was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2017 for trafficking, rape and illegal immigration.

He cannot be named until his appeal has been finalised.

His reign of terror came to an end after his stepdaughter reported her abuse to nurses at Ngwelezana Hospital after giving birth.

She told them he had raped her repeatedly and treated her like a wife for more than two years.

The court heard that when the abuse started, the man was married to the victim’s mother, with whom he had two children.

When the victim was 12 years old, he began raping her, and when she reported the first incident to her mother, she refused to believe her and burnt the blood stained clothes to destroy the evidence.

Two years later, the mother abandoned her family after falling in love with another man.

The victim was left at the mercy of her stepfather, who she was forced to follow to South Africa.

He continued raping her and confined her to their house where she was made to cook and clean for him and the two other children.

The rapes continued until she fell pregnant when she was just 13 years old.

Under cross examination, the teenager said she held onto the hope of finishing school and finding a job to support her siblings.

The stepfather admitted to sexually assaulting his stepdaughter and further pleaded guilty to being an illegal immigrant.

He disputed the accusation that he was guilty of human trafficking, but did not testify in his defence.

• Human trafficking affects thousands of girls in South Africa, with some cases carried out by those who are closest to the victim.

Despite the lack of reporting on human trafficking, the industry continues to grow, and according to the global Slavery Index, it is estimated that it now generates more than R2-trillion.

Sadly, only one per cent of victims escape the system.

The Slavery Index in 2018 estimated that there are 155 000 people in modern slavery in South Africa.

Tragic trafficking story plays out in High Court