A woman is losing sleep over what she suspects could be the trafficking of her 15-year-old daughter to South Africa by a relative.
The girl was reportedly taken to South Africa by her cousin, who had initially sought permission to take the minor and her 17-year-old sister to Manzini.
According to the girls’ mother, Tsembeni Simuka, the two minors left their home at Hlane on September 5 with their late aunt’s daughter, who had asked to take them to Manzini to see her rented flat.
Simuka said she allowed the visit because she believed her daughters would return home as they had previously done so whenever their cousin took them somewhere.
However, she said she noticed that the girls left home in the morning, whereas they usually left in the afternoon when their cousin took them out because she had a car.
After they had left, Simuka said she discovered that her daughter’s travel documents were no longer where she had kept them. She initially did not pay much attention to this. She said she became suspicious the following morning when her youngest daughter called her using their cousin’s cellphone and informed her that she would not be returning home.
“She said my sister’s daughter had promised to enrol her for a short course in South Africa. I reprimanded both the child and my sister’s daughter but they hung up the phone,” said Simuka.
She added that her 17-year-old daughter later returned home, which she suspected was made easier by the fact that the girl was sickly at the time. Simuka also noted that her niece allowed the younger girl to call home.
“However, what concerned my husband and I was that the eldest daughter had told us that her sister used to be taken into a room and coached on what to say to us whenever she called home. We were told that the child was told to hang up the phone whenever we asked too many questions about her stay,” said Simuka.
The mother said she was particularly worried because her daughter, who was in Grade 10, needed to attend school. For days after the minor was taken to South Africa, Simuka said her family continued calling her niece.
She said the situation took a turn for the worse when her niece allegedly started telling her and her husband that they would never get the minor back.
This prompted Simuka to travel to her niece’s residence in South Africa, where she and the niece’s landlord were told that the family was not at home.
“The person I was with left to call the South African police to the residence and while I waited outside their gate, I saw my niece’s child rush to the car and her husband hastily loading packed bags into the car, before they sped off while I helplessly watched them,” relayed Simuka.
She said she later learnt from the niece’s landlord that a second car, out of their three vehicles, had also been taken from the compound.
“This and the fact that she had told us that we will never see our daughter again made me more worried. I suspect that my daughter would be forced to do illegal things,” said the worried mother.
Simuka said the South African police opened a case and advised her to report the matter to the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS) as well.
She said the matter was reported to the Simunye Police on Tuesday, a development confirmed by Chief Police Information and Communications Officer Senior Superintendent Phindile Zwane.
Simuka explained that she did not immediately report the matter because she had hoped her niece would eventually decide to allow her daughter to return home so that she could continue with her education.
“My niece spent almost all her life in her home country in Zimbabwe. She came to us in 2021 and showed us pictures of my late sister and we embraced her. Since then, she usually took my daughters for visits and would bring them back,” said Simuka.
She said in 2024, her niece took the two girls to Johannesburg and then Zimbabwe, before later bringing them back home.
Head of the Secretariat for the Prevention of People Trafficking and People Smuggling Department in the Prime Minister’s Office Nomphumelelo Lukhele confirmed that the matter had been reported to the department.
Lukhele, however, said she could not divulge further details, save to say that the case was still under investigation.
