It was a long and gruelling bus trip from Bloemfontein to Durban and, after a day on the road, all she wanted was to be home with her family and to rest.
Little did she realise the day would become the worst of her life.
Shashi (not her real name ) had never paid much attention to stories about human trafficking but that Friday afternoon she became a victim of it herself.
Shashi, 30, who worked as a sales representative, shared her ordeal with The Sunday Independent.
“I had just arrived in Durban from Bloemfontein, where I had been deployed to work for that week. The bus dropped me at Umgeni Road bus station at 4.30pm and I quickly boarded a taxi that I hoped would take me into the CBD.
“There, I would have taken another taxi bound for my family’s home in Phoenix. But things didn’t go according to plan. Instead, all the other passengers were dropped off at various stops around the city, but not me.
“When I tried to get off at the Workshop Shopping Mall, the conductor held a knife to my chest.”
Shashi was blindfolded by the the man. “I was shaking with fear, wondering what was happening to me. Would I ever see my family again, was the thought that crossed my mind.
“They drove me to a destination I do not know. When we arrived in his family shack, he introduced me as his girlfriend to his mother and brother. I played along and acted like his woman because I feared he would kill me.”
Shashi was emotionally and physically abused and she was not given food or allowed to shower for the duration of the weekend.
“I was stuck with him for the whole weekend; he sexually assaulted me with his friends. I pleaded with them to stop but my plea fell on deaf ears.
“His girlfriend also beat me up after she found out her man had brought a ‘girlfriend’ into the house. His mother tried to help me escape – she planned to go with me to the church but her son refused.”
Shashi spent the whole weekend pretending to have accepted being the man’s girlfriend because she believed it would help her escape. However, she kept thinking of a way to convince her kidnapper to let her go.
While she was stuck in the house with him, Shashi was only offered alcohol.
Hard as it was, she never lost hope. She told the conductor if she didn’t arrive at work on Monday, people would search for her. She had to promise him that she would come back to the house after work.
The plan worked. He would take her to work and pick her up later. She left her luggage with all her clothes to make her ruse convincing.
“He dropped me off at work. I still acted cool towards him and got out of the car and went to the office. I immediately told my bosses what had happened.
“We called the cops, hoping the conductor would return to fetch me, but he never pitched up. The cops took me to various townships but I wasn’t able to identify the place where I was held hostage. I became so depressed that I committed myself to alcohol and quit my job.
“I had lost hope in life, and although my family was supportive, they couldn’t help me stop the way I was behaving.
“It was only in 2013, three years later, when I booked myself into a rehabilitation centre, that I took control of my life again,” she said.
Shashi felt she needed to put the experience behind her by talking about it, so that she could focus her attention on her two young daughters.
The first week of October was Anti-Human Trafficking Awareness Week in South Africa.
Sunday Tribune