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Court Reporter
The trial of a 62-year-old cross-border trader accused of recruiting two Zimbabwean women to work in Angola before forcing them into prostitution began in Harare on Wednesday with one of the alleged victims giving a chilling account of her ordeal.
Jesca Mahuni, who is appearing before Harare magistrate Mr Tendai Mahwe, pleaded not guilty to human trafficking charges.
Testifying as the first witness, a 20-year-old woman, who was visibly emotional, told the court that she was introduced to Mahuni by her sister.
“My sister called me indicating that the accused wanted a maid to work in Angola and I accepted the offer because I had a passport.
“On our way to Angola, I soiled myself after the accused refused to give me money to pay for ablution facilities. She told me that I should leave behind Zimbabwean habits since we were now in Angola and simply follow her orders.
“Mahuni would order me to sell her wares, wash her clothes and scrub her back. I was fed on soup, tea and a bun. I spent the day selling her wares and upon my return at around 4pm accused was with three men,” she said.
The woman told the court that Mahuni instructed her to have sexual intercourse with the men because she wanted to recover the money she used to bring her to Angola.
“The men forced me into unprotected sexual intercourse while accused was seated at the doorstep. Afterwards she urged me to continue sleeping with them to get food,” she told the court.
“I did not have any source of communication and I was made to sleep with different men for six months,” she said.
“I was assisted by accused’s niece known as Mai Tigere who knew about the ill-treatment and she helped us come back. The woman said she lodged a police report at Chirundu Border Post on arrival.
Prosecutor Ms Francesca Mukumbiri alleged that between July 2013 and February this year Mahuni lured the two women to travel with her to Angola and work as cross-border traders.
The two women left the country separately, one by road and the other by air, but later joined each other on arrival in Luanda, Angola.
Mahuni allegedly confiscated the girls’ passports and cellphones and told them they were now in “Eduardo dos Santos’ country and not in Mugabe’s territory”.
It is alleged that at one point the girls spent two weeks scavenging for food as Mahuni refused to feed them.
Instead, she allegedly ordered them to indulge in prostitution for daily meals and her personal gain.
A Zimbabwean woman later took them to the Zimbabwean Embassy in Luanda where travelling documents were processed for the duo to return home.
Upon arrival in Zimbabwe, they reported the matter to police, leading to Mahuni’s arrest and the recovery of the girls’ passports from her resi- dence.
Mahuni is on US$200 bail.
Online Reporter