Durban - A Durban woman is traumatised after enduring an invasive and humiliating strip search when she travelled to Guangzhou in China earlier this month.
Mpume Ndlovu, 24, left for Hong Kong on March 11 to buy stock for her clothing business.
She said she had noticed a change in the approach of officials when they grilled her about her reasons for visiting the country and even inquired about her bank balance.
“I think they were suspicious because I was travelling alone, but I always do. I’m a frequent traveller to their country and before this trip I was there in December,” she said.
After being thoroughly questioned and having her luggage checked at Hong Kong International Airport, Ndlovu took a taxi to Guangzhou in mainland China.
She said she was questioned again at the China/Hong Kong border before she was told to strip.
“They went through literally every seam of all my garments, including (my) underwear. The female officer opened my buttocks then told me to open my legs so that she could look into my genitals.”
Ndlovu said she was too shocked to be outraged and did what she was told so as not to arouse unnecessary suspicion that she could be hiding something.
“When they were eventually finished searching me and my luggage I asked them what was going on and they said they were just searching and wouldn’t elaborate.”
On her way back three days later she was subjected to the same search, but without the strip. She said it must have been because there was no female officer, but she was the only one who was made to open her luggage, and its contents were thoroughly searched.
“What made the situation more humiliating is that I was in a taxi with five Chinese people, but I was the only one who was subjected to the strip search.”
Ndlovu believes the Chinese and Hong Kong government have become more suspicious of South Africans since some have being caught smuggling drugs through their borders.
“I can understand their wariness, but the strip search is humiliating to their visitors, and especially upsetting for South Africans because Hong Kong and Chinese citizens come into our country on a daily basis and they are not subjected to the same degrading treatment.”
Ndlovu declined to have her photograph taken for fear of victimisation.
The Hong Kong Immigration Department’s Wh Lai said they had officers at ports of entry who randomly checked passengers to try to prevent potential criminal activities from being conducted on their soil. He denied that their officers might have strip-searched Ndlovu.
“Our focus is on validating the travel documents and whether they are being genuine about the purpose of their visit. So when the officers asked her questions it was not because of her race or that she was from South Africa, it was merely standard procedure,” he said.
Attempts to get comments from the Chinese Customs and Excise Department were unsuccessful.
South African Department of International Relations and Co-operation spokesman Nelson Kgwete said: “We are not aware of any additional security measures by Hong Kong authorities or the targeting of South Africans. This strip search routine is news to us.”
He said South Africans should not be afraid to report incidents of unfair treatment to the South African authorities in the countries they were visiting.
“It is important to know if our people have been treated unfairly so we can investigate.”
The Mercury