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Convicted human trafficker and rapist Vukani Shembe has been sentenced to 23 years in jail, in the first case of its kind in the Western Cape.
Spokesman Eric Ntabazalila said the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) was pleased with the sentence.
“Today is a very important day for the NPA in the Western Cape, the police and all other stakeholders who are fighting the scourge of human trafficking taking place in our communities... (which is) steadily growing within the borders of the province. Exact figures are not possible due to low reportage and indeed discovery of all cases.”
Shembe stood still in the dock in the Mitchells Plain Magistrate’s Court on Monday, his face blank as Magistrate Ruth Jakuja pronounced: “The accused is sentenced to 15 years on one count of human trafficking and 15 years on one count of rape of which seven years run concurrently. Effectively, the accused will serve a total of 23 years in prison.”
Jakuja said the charges were “very serious” because the case involved the illegal removal of a victim from her country, Swaziland. “The accused stole five months of the victim’s life. And her purity was stolen along with it. Evidence proves that the woman was a virgin (before Shembe raped her). Her first sexual experience was with a dirty, drunk and unwashed man who had sex with her wherever and whenever he felt like it,” said Jakuja.
Last week Shembe’s lawyer, Thuso Matseme, said the woman saw Shembe’s offer as “an opportunity to run away from home”. When it didn’t work out, she claimed to have been kidnapped and raped, Matseme said. “That way, authorities would have sent her back to Swaziland without asking questions.” Prosecutor Mornay Julius, who had traced the woman in Swaziland and helped her return to Cape Town accompanied by her mother to testify, argued she had completed matric and was awaiting a bursary to attend university.
And, it was unlikely that she would leave her “favourable conditions” back home to cross the border illegally with a stranger.
The court heard Shembe had a previous conviction for theft. However, Jakuja said he had no previous convictions relating to human trafficking.
Jakuja also said Shembe was a “danger to society who built his life around lies”.
In April 2010 Shembe led the 20-year-old woman from Swaziland to South Africa with the promise of a job. She was raped several times over a period of five months. She has since returned to her family. - Cape Times
lauren.isaacs@inl.co.za