NELSPRUIT – A British woman, whom the Hawks claimed was not a human trafficking victim or an illegal immigrant, is still being detained a month later. And yet Hawks spokesman, Capt Paul Ramaloko, has told Lowvelder that Ms Anna Kreller (26) is longer in custody as she has committed no crime.
She will apparently be allowed to return to her country within two to three weeks. The Hawks had investigated a case of human trafficking after Kreller had claimed she had been held as a sex slave for seven years in South Africa. He also told Lowvelder that she was in a place of safety.
Yet according to Home Affairs spokesman Mr Thabo Mokgolo, Kreller had already been transferred on April 2 to Lindela Holding Facility after an investigation into the trafficking case had been concluded.
He said the department was also in the process of arranging her departure flight, and that it was still investigating the details of her arrest and also what had happened to her travel documents.
Media had previously reported that the Repatriation Centre, which was the country’s main detention facility for persons deemed to be illegal and slated for deportation, had a long and notorious reputation for repeated rights abuse of detainees. In 2000 the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) released a report which detailed these violations and listed a number of recommendations.
Years later, similar allegations continued to surface, with reports of legitimate asylum seekers and refugees being deported and put at risk of torture and possible death.
Lowvelder requested an interview with Kreller, but no response had been forthcoming from the department. It had been reported that access for non-governmental organisations was extremely limited and this lack of transparency had allowed abuse to occur with minimal oversight.
Initially Kreller told a local family who rescued her on a street in Springs, that she had been abducted and held against her will in the country for sexual purposes, for seven years. Her first words to them were. “Please phone my mother and tell her I am still alive.”
Another witness Ms Sanet Joubert, a Commumity Policing Forum member in Geduld, Springs, told Lowvelder that she was on the scene last month when Kreller was rescued. “An old woman contacted me and said she was looking for a British girl who had gone missing.” Joubert said she had a radio that was linked to the police’s and heard that they had found a drunk woman. “I went there and found Kreller sitting on the side of the road. Then an old woman, the one who initially contacted me, arrived and claimed that she was Anna’s mother.”
Kreller had by then given Joubert a contact number for her mother, so she suspected that the old woman was lying. She said Kreller refused to go with the woman and grabbed Joubert’s leg, stating that she didn’t know her. “Police then took her to the station.” According to Joubert, later that day the old woman went to fetch Kreller from the station.
“The following day police phoned me and wanted to know where the old woman lived as they were looking for Kreller.” She then took them to the house where they arrested her for allegedly being an illegal immigrant.
Ramaloko said she told their investigating team that she had been married to a South African man and had relocated with him to Cape Town from the UK. “The marriage didn’t work out and they were divorced. She lost her South African citizenship.”
She apparently met another man in Boksburg whom she described as her boyfriend. After an argument she moved to Springs. There she decided to call her mother and told people she was a victim of human trafficking, so that she could be deported. Ramaloko continued, “By the end of the morning, after questioning her, we decided there was no element of truth in the story.”
