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Fungai Lupande Court Reporter
A 62-year-old cross-border trader who recruited two Zimbabwean women to work in Angola before forcing them into prostitution has been sent to jail for an effective one and half years.Jessica Mahuni pleaded not guilty to charges of violating section 83 of the Criminal Codification and Reform Act which prohibits leaving the country with the intention that the other person may become a prostitute.
Harare magistrate Mr Tendai Mahwe sentenced Mahuni to two years before suspending six months for five years on condition of good behaviour after overwhelming evidence against her.
In passing sentence, Mr Mahwe said Mahuni did not deserve the court’s leniency because her conduct was unlawful.
“She was cruel to the girls whom she forced to sleep with different men exposing them to sexually transmitted diseases,” he said. “She does not deserve the lenience of the court.”
Prosecutor Ms Francesca Mukumbiri told the court that between July last year and February this year Mahuni enticed the two girls into believing they had secured employment as cross-border traders.
The girls left the country separately, one by road and the other by air, but later joined each other upon arrival in Luanda, Angola.
Immediately after setting foot in Angola, Mahuni confiscated the girls’ passports and cellphones and told them they were now in “Dos Santos’ country and not in Mugabe’s” territory and as such, they would play by her dictates.
Mahuni took one of the girls to a certain family, placed her under a contract of employment as a house maid, but collected wages.
At one point, the girls spent two weeks scavenging for food as Mahuni refused to feed them.
Instead, she ordered them to indulge into prostitution for daily meals and her personal gain.
The girls were forced to have unprotected sex with several men, while Mahuni collected the cash paid for services rendered by the girls.
A Zimbabwean woman took them to the Zimbabwean Embassy in Luanda where travelling documents were processed for the duo to come back home.
Upon arrival in Zimbabwe, they reported the matter to the police, leading to Mahuni’s arrest and the recovery of their passports from her residence here.
Online Reporter