Five suspects arrested in connection with the alleged human trafficking are expected to appear in the Rustenburg and Kuruman Magistrate Courts today.<\/p>\n
The five men were arrested on Sunday following a Hawks Northern Cape and North West Serious Organised Crime Investigation with the assistance of Crime Intelligence, K9, TRT, Crime Scene Investigation and the Department of Home Affairs.<\/p>\n
The investigation saw law enforcement raid three brothels in Kuruman and Rustenburg, ultimately arresting the five.<\/p>\n
According to Hawks spokesperson Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi, 11 victims of alleged human trafficking were also recued.<\/p>\n
Search warrants were served at two guesthouses namely Birdsong B&B and Noble Guest House at Kerk Street, Rustenburg, which were used as brothels. <\/p>\n
The two premises have since been closed.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnother simultaneous operation also led to a closure of a house in Kuruman. Seven victims, a Zambian, Zimbabwean, three from Lesotho and two South Africans were rescued in Rustenburg,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Additionally, four South African women were rescued in Kuruman.<\/p>\n
He said the arrest of the five suspects aged between 28 and 46, is part of a yearlong proactive investigation into human trafficking for sexual exploitation in the two towns.<\/p>\n
The women aged between 20 and 39 years, were used as prostitutes on the premises after they were allegedly lured by the suspects with a promise of employment.<\/p>\n
In addition, an undisclosed amount of money was seized at all premises. Receipt books and three vehicles that were used in the commission of crimes were also confiscated.<\/p>\n
The five men are believed to be part of an alleged criminal group.<\/p>\n
The National Head of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation ( DPCI) Lieutenant General Godfrey Lebeya welcomed the arrests and commended the role played by all units.<\/p>\n
Lebeya also appreciated the role that was played by community members who reported the matter to the Hawks.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to encourage all South Africans to continuously work hand in glove with the law enforcement agencies to combat the ongoing threat posed by organised criminal groups.\u201d – SAnews.gov.za<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Five suspects arrested in connection with the alleged human trafficking are expected to appear in the Rustenburg and Kuruman Magistrate Courts today. The five men were arrested on Sunday following a Hawks Northern Cape and North West Serious Organised Crime Investigation with the assistance of Crime Intelligence, K9, TRT, Crime Scene Investigation and the Department […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[38678],"class_list":{"0":"post-166906","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-sanews","8":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166906\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}