In Cape Town’s latest case of human trafficking, a young woman was allegedly kept captive in a Brooklyn wendy house for seven months and forced into prostitution and drug addiction.
This week the city’s Vice Squad removed the 23-year-old woman, along with a 19-year-old woman, from the residence.
It’s believed the 19-year-old was being held against her will for the past two weeks.
Both women are from Joburg and came to Cape Town under the false promise of employment.
Instead, it’s alleged the pair were forced into the sex trade. They were also forced to take drugs such as dagga and crack.
Nathan Ladegourdie, spokesman for the city’s specialised law enforcement services, said the Vice Squad was acting on a tip-off after another operation a few weeks ago.
“They had rescued a woman from another house in Brooklyn and she said she could identify her abductor. And that led them to this house,” Ladegourdie said.
He said there were two wendy houses and a main house on the plot. The women had little access to food and never left the premises.
“There was a small bed and couch in one wendy house. It’s believed the women were only allowed into the main house when they had clients.”
A man was arrested and appeared in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court this week on charges of kidnapping and assault, and is also being charged under the Sexual Offences Act.
Ladegourdie said the women had been placed in a safe house and a social worker was working to reunite them with their families.
This is just one in a string of similar cases in the past few months.
In May, the Vice Squad removed a 16-year-old girl from a Bellville complex. The girl, from Durbanville, told officers her friend had brought her to the complex a month earlier. She had not been allowed to leave and was forced to take drugs and then “work the streets”.
A few days later, she was reunited with her parents. A welfare organisation is currently assisting with counselling.
In April, two men arrested by the Vice Squad also appeared in the Bellville Magistrate’s Court.
It’s alleged they were trafficking a 19-year-old woman.
They appeared on charges of intimidation after the girl accused them of trying to bribe her to drop the charges against them. She was originally from Gauteng and was being kept in a Bellville complex.
Ladegourdie said most of the women were lured into the city with fake job offers. In other cases, they were “forcibly taken”.
And in some instances, they were introduced to traffickers through friends, again under the pretence of work.
Cape Argus