PRETORIA – A sting operation comprising members of the Hawks, Crime Intelligence and the Department of Home Affairs has led to the arrest of a Malawian national for human trafficking in Johannesburg on Thursday.
The 38-year-old man told undercover police that he was selling four males and one female aged between 41 and 39 years for R500 per person. A transaction was made with police buying the five Malawian nationals for R2000. Later the man was arrested in possession of the money the police paid to him.
Investigation revealed that the man would lure fellow countrymen into South Africa promising them job opportunities. Upon arrival he would sell them to anybody who would use them anyhow.
The five victims, who have since been taken to a place of safety, had been promised that that they were going to work at a farm in North West and were to pay their master R1 500 month, until such time that he would feel that it was enough.
The man will appear in the Johannesburg Magistrate Court on Monday, 9 February 2015, on charges of human trafficking and possible contravention of the Immigration Act.
