Police have arrested a 53-year-old man for allegedly trafficking a 15-year-old girl from Mozambique to South Africa and kept her as a sex slave.
The man was arrested on May 18, and faces charges of contravening the Trafficking in Persons Act 7 of 2013. He appeared in the Alexandra magistrate’s court on Monday.
The case against the suspect was postponed to May 29 for a formal bail application.
Speaking to Sunday World, Police spokesperson Colonel Philani Nkwalase said:”the suspect cannot be named as he has not yet pleaded on sexual offence charges as required by the law.”
It is alleged that the man brought the teenager to South Africa after telling her parents he had a job for her at his tuckshop in Alexandra, Gauteng.
Nkwalase said: “the victim and her family were reportedly told that the suspect’s wife was partially blind, and she needed help to run the business.
“The suspect took the young lady from her parents in Mozambique promising that he will send them money every month.”
When they arrived in Gauteng, the girl found out that there was no spaza shop and the man threatened her.
Nkwalase said the suspect allegedly raped the girl between January and March 2023.
“The girl was sent to buy food and shared her multiple rape ordeal with a woman who worked as a cashier at a local supermarket,” he said.
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