\n \t\t\t \t\t\t
![\"IOL](\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/plugins\/rss-poster\/cache\/080cb_2967425939.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/p>\n \t
\n \t\t\t \t\t\t <\/p>\n
The Mercury<\/p>\n
Doctor Genchen Rugnath and his wife, Ravina. Photo:Sandile Makhoba<\/p>\n
\n
Related Stories<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Durban – Days after she moved into the Inntown Holiday Lodge, a 24-year-old woman was standing on a street corner \u201cselling her body\u201d, the Durban Regional Court heard on Thursday. <\/p>\n
The woman, who said she had been raped and who therefore may not be identified, took the stand as the second witness in the trial of Genchen and Ravina Rugnath, Sandile Zweni, Nonduzo Dlamini and Bhabha Dubazane. <\/p>\n
The five face more than 150 charges, including human trafficking and racketeering, relating to the alleged keeping of a brothel at the lodge. <\/p>\n
The witness moved in with a friend at the lodge in 2010. She noticed that most of the people living there were women and found condoms in a cupboard in the passage, she said in her evidence-in-chief. <\/p>\n
She met Zweni on her second day at the lodge. He asked if she knew \u201chow the people in that place lived\u201d and instructed another woman to tell her \u201cthe rules\u201d. <\/p>\n
The witness wept when asked to recall the instructions she received on her third day at the lodge. <\/p>\n
She had thought of refusing to prostitute herself, <\/p>\n
\u201cbut where else was I going to sleep?\u201d <\/p>\n
Accompanied by a number of other women from the lodge, she went to Durban North, where they stood on a street corner. A man approached her and she had sex with him. He paid her R100. <\/p>\n
Later another man approached her. \u201cI refused to sleep with him without a condom\u2026 I was struggling with him, pushing him,\u201d she said, adding that he then raped her. <\/p>\n
\u201cI told myself I would never do that again.\u201d <\/p>\n
The witness remained at the lodge for a month. She would steal money and pretend she had earned it through prostitution. <\/p>\n
She also said that, in line with a friend\u2019s request, she would buy \u201crocks\u201d (crack cocaine) from a man, also named Sandile, who was a runner for Zweni. During cross-examination, she conceded that she had not bought drugs directly from the accused. <\/p>\n
She knew Dlamini and Dubazane \u201cby sight\u201d, but did not know the Rugnaths. <\/p>\n
The trial continues. <\/p>\n
The Mercury<\/strong> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Mercury Doctor Genchen Rugnath and his wife, Ravina. Photo:Sandile Makhoba Related Stories Bid to stop brothel trial fails \u2018Prostitutes left hotel before boss visited\u2019 Brothel suspects re-hire lawyers Durban – Days after she moved into the Inntown Holiday Lodge, a 24-year-old woman was standing on a street corner \u201cselling her body\u201d, the Durban Regional […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","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":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-22464","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"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\/22464","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=22464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22464\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}