Twenty-four ladies rescued from CBD brothel
A year or two ago you might have been a schoolgirl, but now you need to make an income
Imagine being in a foreign country – you’ve fled your country of birth because people are starving on the streets whilst the government is bashing down doors in your neighbourhood for reasons you don’t quite comprehend.
You’re too young to have ever had a hand in this political turmoil; but you couldn’t find a job in your own country because of it.
You’re in South Africa now: you’re cold, you’re lonely, you’re hungry, you know that many South Africans don’t want you here, you know the streets are mean.
A year or two ago you might have been a schoolgirl, but now you need to make an income.
You need to send money back home so that your brothers and sisters can eat, so that your mother can buy her medication.
Can you imagine it?
Could you imagine being one of the 24 prostitutes allegedly found living in a bar located in the central business district.
On March 6, Vosman SAPS and Witbank SAPS joined forced for the next leg of Operation Fiela.
This ‘next leg’ involved raiding vendors in the CBD area and seizing any counterfeit items or illegal contraband, as well as a planned raid at a suspected brothel.
The police found 24 illegal Zimbabwean immigrants living in the bar.
“These women are prostitutes, and each of them will be giving a statement against the owner of the bar so that we will have sufficient evidence to try him for all of the crimes related to running a brothel. The girls have alleged that the owner of the bar charged them R100 each in order for them to be allowed to offer their ‘services’ at his bar.” Brigadier Delisiwe Motha explained, “we won’t be charging these 24 girls as prostitutes. They will be tried as illegal immigrants for entering the country illegally. We are, however, hopeful that we will have a strong case to go after the brothel owner with the full force of the law.”
