The article of the Times of Swaziland reads: "MANZINI- A Mozambican businesswoman has been accused of allegedly trafficking a woman from Mozambique, subjecting her to harsh working conditions not paying her January salary.
The names of the parties involved are known to this publication but are deliberately withheld because no formal charges have been laid against the businesswoman. According to a source, the businesswoman allegedly trafficked a 21-year-old woman from her country in August last year. The source purported that the woman was promised good pay. It was alleged that the woman was made to work as a helper for the businesswoman, who would not allow her to visit home since her employment.
Fired
It was further alleged that when the employee accidentally broke her employer’s teapot lid, she was told that she would not be paid and later fired. The matter was then reported to the Manzini Police Station, where officers are still engaged in investigations. It was gathered that the employer, upon being engaged by police officers together with the woman, paid her former employee. When reached for comment, the businesswoman said the allegations were untrue. “It is not the truth, nothing is the truth,” she said.
She also supposed that she was aware of who was behind the allegations, and that they were political. The businesswoman said certain people were fighting her for winning in the elections but did not reveal which they (elections) were. The businesswoman said 85 per cent of Mozambicans staying in the country were without legal documents. As a result, she said she did not even wish to talk about the matter. She told this reporter that she would go to the police station to report that this publication had called her. The businesswoman reiterated that she had not trafficked anyone and did not wish to be involved in such offences.
Promised
When queried further on the allegations, the businesswoman concede that she had an employee at her home whom she had since fired and promised to pay on a later date. She maintained that it was not true that she had trafficked anyone and disclosed that she had paid the employee in the presence of officers at the police station. “I paid her in front of the police officers because I was avoiding any noise between the two of us. The police station is not a place to pay someone but I chose that,” she said.
President of the Mozambican Association in Eswatini Domingo Thomo said he went to record a statement at the police station upon being informed that a fellow Mozambican had been trafficked from Mozambique into the country last August. Thomo said the person who reported the matter was one James Sithole, who was responsible for the welfare of Mozambicans in Manzini.
“I was told that the businesswoman trafficked the woman after promising her a job in the country,” he narrated.
Thomo said he was told that the woman accidentally broke a teapot lid and her employer took her to task. He alleged that the employer demanded that she should go to look for a shop where the teapot was sold and buy it to replace it. He narrated that the employee was not even paid but fired.
“It is then that she reported the matter to Sithole, who then called and filled me in. We then decided to report the matter to the police,” he said. Thomo said as a leader of the Mozambican community, they strongly encouraged their fellow countrymen to have legal documents when they came into the country for various jobs.
Buried
“This is because we have buried over 100 Mozambicans without legal documents, and as it is, about 80 corpses are still in the mortuary because they are unidentified,” he said. The president condemned the employer’s alleged deed. He expressed his wish for the officers of the law to work on the matter such that the accused was brought to court.
He questioned how one could employ someone who was without legal documents and then subject them to harsh conditions and later not paying them.
Chief Police Information and Communications Officer Superintendent Phindile Vilakati confirmed that such a matter was brought to the attention of the police, but no elements of crime had been picked. Vilakati said they would collect statements to ascertain if there was any crime." (
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The coordinates are from the Manzini Police Station