Three women and a man from Wattville have each been sentenced to life imprisonment for human trafficking and the rape of three minors aged 14, 15 and 16.
The Pretoria High Court sitting in Benoni sentenced the accused on July 18.
Mokulunga Ndozo Msibande (38), Nokubonga Londi Khanyile (25) and Nomusa Gugu Magasela (37) were convicted on three counts of human trafficking and rape. For the three counts of human trafficking, they were sentenced to life imprisonment and 15 years for rape.
Pinto Torela (28) was sentenced to life imprisonment for rape and five years for being in the country illegally. All counts will run concurrently. The accused names will be entered into the National Register for Sex Offenders (NRSO) and they were declared unfit to work with children.
According to Ekurhuleni SAPS spokesperson Captain Neldah Sekgobela, in 2020 before the lockdown, the three victims, who were friends, met the suspects in a tavern, where they started drinking together.
“The accused then started phoning the victims regularly. At first, they ignored these calls. The accused asked the victims to come to their shack to have sex with men for money.”
Sekgobela said the accused kept the victims at their shack and hired them to sleep with men. It is reported that the suspects gave the victims ‘muti’ to put on their private parts to attract men.
One of the victims, who was introduced as the wife of Torela and who had been sold to Torela, lived in Emandleni.
In August 2021, while she was doing laundry at Torela’s shack, her mother arrived and took her to the police station where a case of human trafficking was opened.
The other victims managed to escape from the traffickers and went to a house in Braamfisher, Soweto, traumatised by having been prostituted.
The docket was assigned to Sergeant Angeline Mfolo of the Benoni Family Violence, Child Protection Services and Sexual Offenses Unit, who found the two victims and obtained their statements.
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