Swazi Observer

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WANT JOB, GIVE SEX - ASIAN SHOP OWNERS

By Sifiso Nhlabatsi | 2019-03-07

A University of Eswatini student has lived to tell of his horrendous experience after he was kidnapped by a group of Pakistani businessmen.

The student was kidnapped and held hostage for three days after exposing the Pakistani businessmen for sexually abusing local women working in their shops.

Asian nationals are known for owning shops all over the country, and most of them have hired local women to work in their shops.

It has since been gathered that a lot of these women are being sexually abused by these businessmen. Most of them are suffering in silence, afraid to report their employers to the police. A student from Pakistani, who is doing his Certificate in Portuguese at UNESWA, got into trouble after he tried to expose his country men for sexual abuse.

Farooq Shahzaib came into the country to pursue his studies, however, due to the fact that he has a study permit ,some of his countrymen decided to use this to their advantage and hired him to work for them in their shops. This made it easy for them to operate, because police would not give them trouble whenever they were conducting raids to uproot illegal aliens. While working for his fellow countrymen, Shahzaib said he discovered that a lot of ills were happening in the shops.

Bosses

He said the women hired in these shops were forced to sleep with their employers. He revealed that these businessmen, a majority aged above 55, were sleeping with the employees as young as 19 years old in the store-rooms. He said some pretended that they needed the employees to help them with house chores, and once the girls get to their employer’s houses, they would be forced to perform sexual acts with their bosses.

Shahzaib said a lot of these women unwillingly slept with the shop owners, saying defiant ones were fired on the spot. The student said there was one shop where this was so rife in such a way that about six girls were fired for refusing to have sex with their employer. Shahzaib said having seen a lot of the women being sexually abused by his fellow countrymen he decided to assist the women open a case with the police.

He said, however, despite the fact that the women confessed of having been sexually abused they were afraid to report the cases directly. He said different reasons were given by the women and one of them was that some had boyfriends and children.

Police

The women said they were afraid that once their partners learnt that they had been raped, they might leave them. The student said he also learnt that some of the rogue shop owners were keeping the women silent by giving them money and cellphones as gifts after performing the leud acts.

Shahzaib said despite that there were a lot of girls who were afraid to come out of the closet, there were some who took his advice and reported the matter to the police.

This is where trouble began for the student. he said soon after blowing the whistle, his fellow countrymen turned against him and accused him of putting them in the spotlight and damaging their reputation.

On November 30, 2018 while at Rontanya Flats near Riverstone in Manzini he was kidnapped by seven men. He said he was assaulted with fists, kicks and open hands all over the body while he was held hostage in a room in one of the flats. He was forced to record a video apologising for embarrassing his fellow countrymen.

The student said all the time he was being assaulted; at one time he was told by his assailants that they would cut him pieces. He was kept in that room for three days without food or any opportunity to take a bath.

Convesations

While in captivity, they took his cellphone and went through his conversations with one of the girls. He said they found out that the conversations were plans on how they (him and the abused woman) would expose the sexual abuse.

Shahzaib said he was told that if he went ahead with his plans he would be framed for a crime he did not commit and would be arrested and deported back to his home country. After being made to record the video, confessing that he was lying, he was also made to sign an affidavit to that effect. He said his kidnappers took E2 200 from him before setting him free. After this ordeal, he later learnt that most of his assailants had left for South Africa, while some remained in the country and were continuing with their businesses.

When called about the matter, Deputy Police Information and Communications Officer Nosipho Mnguni confirmed the matter, saying police were only able to arrest one Pakistani national. She said the rest escaped to South Africa and police were still looking for them. She said the matter was still under investigations.

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