GIRLS saved from what seemed to be a human trafficking syndicate said some police and metro police officers were “clients” at the alleged brothel, Hawks spokesperson, Brig Hangwani Mulaudzi, told EXRESS on Monday.
This comes after 16 girls, the youngest just 15 year -old, were rescued from a Kempton home on Friday where they were allegedly drugged, starved and used for sex.
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• VIDEO: Girls rescued from trafficking in Kempton suburb
The “house of horrors” is situated on Greyilla Avenue next to a pre-school. The gate and front door of the house, painted in a creamy colour with a green palisade fence, were wide open with no person in sight when EXPRESS went past on Tuesday.
In the yard was a blue/silver hatchback and a mattress on the ground, close to the fence.
According to reports the girls were kept in this house for the past nine months, during which they were subjected to sexual abuse at the hands of hundreds of men who paid R50 or R70 each to have sex with them.
According to Mulaudzi, evidence was found at the scene which suggested the girls were forced to sleep with more than two to three men a day and when they refused to work, they were assaulted.
New and used condoms were found scattered around the three-bedroom house, where each room contained more than one bed. A mattress was found in a corner in the kitchen.
The girls are all South African citizens who come from different parts of the country, some of them Soweto. They said they ended up at the house after being kidnapped, while others were promised work.
Gauteng Police Commissioner, Major General Suzan de Lange, said the 15-year-old girl informed them that she had been lured to the house by Nigerians on the false promise of finding her a job.
“She told me she was brought here two weeks ago and didn’t even know where she was, and she was caught up here,” De Lange said.
Four suspects had been arrested during the bust but only one appeared in Kempton Magistrate’s Court on Monday morning facing charges of drug dealing and possible human trafficking. The case was postponed and the Nigerian man will appear again on July 25.
The other three (all found to be in the country illegally) were let go as they could not be linked to the crime. They appeared to be clients, Mulaudzi confirmed on Tuesday.
The girls have since been taken to a place of safety by the Community Safety Department, where they will receive trauma counselling. The owner and possibly the ringleader responsible for trafficking the girls for prostitution is still being pursued by the Hawks.
Mulaudzi confirmed the bust was part of Operation Expose, a nationwide law enforcement task which saw other areas such as Benoni, Boksburg, Reiger Park and Eldorado Park being raided too.
It was led by the Hawks and supported by the SAPS K9 Unit, the Tactical Response Unit, Intervention Unit, Home Affairs Immigration, Air Wing and other police units.
“The police were actually following up on information regarding a house which was involved in drug operations and were shocked to discover it was also being used as a brothel,” Mulaudzi told EXPRESS on Monday.
The operation yielded seven arrests from Kempton and Benoni and the recovery of “an assortment of illegal drugs valued at R150 000”.
The National Head of the Hawks, Lieutenant General Mthandazo Ntlemeza, said the operation would send a stern warning to drugs dealers and human traffickers.
“Drugs and human trafficking are monstrous and devastating crimes that take away innocent lives and degrade our nation,” Ntlemeza commented.
Ntlemeza added that he was “disturbed” after hearing the police force “still had rogue elements” and the local metro police were working with these criminals.
“To all law enforcement officers, especially our own police who are corrupt, abusive and indolent – your days are numbered. We will be relentless in our internal cleansing efforts. We have to eliminate scallywags from within our ranks.”
