Human trafficking matter to continue on Friday with Chichewa interpreter

The trial of seven Chinese nationals accused of human trafficking and child labour came to a halt in the Johannesburg high court on Wednesday as a state witness from Malawi struggled to answer questions in English during cross-examination. 

Amil Thousaad, 27, had taken the oath and told the court he was comfortable testifying in English.

He testified he came to SA in 2018 and worked in a Chinese factory in Croesus, Johannesburg, that was making fibre before he was employed by the accused. He said he was earning R90 per day. 

When the lawyer for the defence cross-examined Thousaad, he struggled to answer questions in English. 

Prosecutor Valencia Dube intervened and told the court that Thousaad could not be helped answering questions.

“She said in the interests of justice proceedings would have to be halted to help the witness and get an interpreter,” the department of employment and labour said.

Dube asked the court to arrange for a Chichewa interpreter. Chichewa is one of the languages spoken in Malawi. The case was postponed until Friday.

The witness was appearing in the case of Kevin Tsao Shu-Uei, Chen Hui, Qin Li, Jiaqing Zhou, Ma Biao, Dai Junying and Zhang Zhilian. They are facing counts of human trafficking, contravention of the Immigration Act, kidnapping, pointing a firearm, debt bondage, benefiting from the services of a victim of trafficking, conduct that facilitates trafficking, illegally assisting people to remain in South Africa and failure to comply with the duties of an employer. 

The accused were arrested in 2019 for allegedly running an illegal enterprise called Beautiful City, which was discovered at Village Deep in Johannesburg in a joint operation by the department of employment and labour's inspection and enforcement services branch, together with the Hawks and the department of home affairs. 

The Chinese factory is alleged to have employed 91 illegal Malawians, 37 of whom were children. The court heard that most of the Malawians working in the factory were transported to South Africa in containers. They were working in horrendous conditions and kept in the locked premises of a factory producing cotton fibre sheets. 

Five of the accused are out on bail while Chen and Zhang are in custody for violating their bail conditions by trying to skip the country. 

TimesLIVE