Rustenburg - The Queenstown Regional Court on Friday sentenced four women to 24 years imprisonment for trafficking in persons.
Captain Anelisa Ngcakani said Xolelwa Garhishe, 24, Yolanda Klaas, 24, Nwabisa Kaziwa, 23, and Zintle Tom, 23, were each sentenced to 12-years imprisonment for trafficking in persons they were additionally slapped with 12-years imprisonment for sexual exploitation of a child.
A fifth accused Harun Mohammed, 38, was sentenced to life imprisonment for rape.
"During October 2016 Garhishe, Klaas, Kaziwa and Tom abducted a 12-year-old girl in Whittlesea and used her as a sex slave for approximately a month.
During this period Mohammed paid R100 to the four women who in turn handed over the 12-year-old girl to him in order for him to sexually exploit her," Captain Ngcakani said.
The trafficking in persons wing of the Hawks received information from SAPS’s Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences (FCS) unit concerning the plight of the young girl.
"Members of the trafficking in persons team immediately investigated the said crime and during November 2016, with the assistance of the FCS unit, arrested Garhishe, Klaas, Kaziwa, Tom and Mohammed in Whittlesea."