GEORGE NEWS - Judgment in a bail application hearing relating to charges of human trafficking will be heard in the George Magistrate's Court tomorrow, Friday 9 February.
This comes after a 34-year-old woman was arrested by the Hawks in George on 16 December last year, following information they received three days prior.
The state is opposing bail on the grounds that the accused could flee the country illegally.
The suspect faces six charges relating to human trafficking and sexual offences, after the Hawks found two Nigerian women, both aged 21, at her apartment in the CBD.
Both women were allegedly lured to South Africa with promises of a career in the beauty industry.
According to a statement issued by the Hawks, the victims were given fake passports and documentation in Nigeria in order for them to travel to South Africa.
"Information was that the girls were advertised on an escort website and were kept in a residential complex in George," read the statement.
Upon a search of the suspect's apartment, the Hawks found four women. Two were self-confessed sex workers from Zimbabwe and South Africa, and the other two were the young victims who were allegedly trafficked from Nigeria inside a shipping container a few months before. The victims underwent a medical assessment and are now kept in a place of safety.
If found guilty, the accused could face life imprisonment and/or a massive fine of R100m.
All four the women, as well as the suspect, shared the two-bedroom flat from where the suspect allegedly operated a brothel.
According to the investigating officer's testimony during the bail application, the young women told her their passports were confiscated the moment they set foot in South Africa after promises of employment in the beauty industry were made to them.
After they arrived in the country they were allegedly forced to become sex workers in order to repay the costs that had been incurred to get them to South Africa.
Due to alleged threats made on their lives and that of their families, they had no hope of going home, or even dared to report it to the police.
The investigating officer testified that the girls allegedly had to pay the suspect R350 per day.
During the suspect's testimony she denied having any knowledge about how or why the girls came to her and said she had no idea that the girls were in South Africa illegally or that they could have been victims of human trafficking.
She told the court that they rented a room from her for which she charged them R350 if they had clients.
If they didn't have clients for the day, they did not have to pay. According to her the money was allocated to contributing towards the household.
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