Durban - The men responsible for enticing two desperate, young, unemployed Durban women to accept jobs in Pretoria that led to them being held against their will and forced to work in a brothel were sentenced in the Durban Regional Court on Tuesday.
A 19-year-old was promised a job as a domestic worker in Pretoria, but when she arrived in the city she was sexually violated and raped. When she refused to work as a prostitute she was locked in one of the men’s flats.
An 18-year-old was offered a job as a house sitter in Pretoria, instead she was forced to smoke rock cocaine and threatened her cellphone would be taken away, cutting off all contact with her family. She was also instructed to conduct prostitution.
Emmanuel Uche Odii, 32, and William Ojiaku, 30, both from Nigeria, who had relocated to South Africa in 2008, were convicted in July this year, along with Bonginkosi Shange, 46, of Newlands West.
Odii was convicted on two counts of trafficking, two counts of kidnapping, sexual assault, rape, assault with grievous bodily harm and keeping a brothel.
Shange was convicted on the two counts of trafficking and Ojiaku was convicted on one count of kidnapping.
In passing sentence on Tuesday, magistrate Fariedha Mohamed said she agreed with state advocate Val Dafel’s argument that the men were “cold, calculating and manipulative”.
The magistrate sentenced Odii to 10 years for each trafficking count, five years for sexual assault, 10 years for rape, three years for each count of kidnapping, two years for assault and two years for keeping a brothel. The sentences were to run concurrently with that for trafficking and rape.
Shange was sentenced to five years for each count of trafficking which are to run concurrently – an effective five-year prison sentence.
Ojiaku was sentenced to two years for kidnapping, which was suspended for five years on condition that he does not commit a similar offence during this time.
“Society was quite outraged by these crimes and the court therefore had to send a message that these sort of offences are not to be tolerated. The two complainants were severely traumatised,” Mohamed said.
The women eventually escaped and pressed charges against the men.
The magistrate felt a term of imprisonment was the only suitable sentence for Odii and Shange. In passing sentence, she had taken into account that Odii had spent almost five years in prison since his arrest in November 2010, awaiting trial and that Shange had spent six months in jail before he was released on bail. Ojiaku was on bail while awaiting trial.
The National Prosecuting Authority yesterday welcomed this sentence. “We are pleased that the courts are taking a firm stance against crimes of this nature.
“Trafficking in persons is a global problem and members of the public need to be cautious and educate themselves. Congratulations to the prosecutor, on a job well done,” read the press statement issued by regional spokeswoman, Natasha Ramkisson-Kara, for the Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions in KwaZulu-Natal.
Daily News
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