Durban Cops Paid Prostitute R50 for Oral Sex in a
Police Van
By S'thembiso Hlongwane on
June 10, 2014
A
schoolgirl prostitute told the Durban Regional Court on Tuesday that two police
officers were among her clients at the time she sold herself to pay for drugs.
One paid
her R50 for oral sex in a police van and an additional R50 to keep quiet about
it. She had sex with the other at a Durban police station.
She was
giving evidence in the trial of Dr Genchen Rugnath, his wife Ravina, and
Sandile Patrick Zweni, Nonduzo Dlamini, and Bhabha Dubazini.
They have
all pleaded not guilty to 156 charges, including assault, rape, sexual
exploitation of a child, and racketeering.
Girls as
young as 12 allegedly worked as prostitutes at a Durban hotel.
The girl,
now 19, said the police officer took her to Durban’s Blue Lagoon area some time
in 2010.
Asked by
Rugnath’s lawyer Arnand Nepaul during cross-examination about why she got R100,
she said: “This [extra] R50 was for me not to tell that I have been doing this
with the police officer.”
The
officer allegedly refused to let her go because “he wanted Sandile’s money. He
knew that Sandile was paying”.
In
previous testimony the girl told the court Zweni bribed police twice to release
her and other girls prostituting themselves.
She
denied that she had been arrested because the officer kept her in the front of
the van while looking for Zweni.
Nepaul
asked her about a statement she made to police in which she claimed she
solicited sex from a police officer at Durban’s Berea Road railway station.
When
queried about the officer she said she only remembered his name as Ngumisa.
“He was
working at Durban central [police station],” she said.
The girl
has alleged she worked for Zweni, whom the State has accused of operating a
prostitution ring from Rugnath’s hotel, the Inn Town Lodge.
The girl
previously told the court she was invited to stay at the Victoria Lodge hotel
while waiting outside a Durban library when she was 13.
Rugnath’s
hotel manageress Veena Budhram was initially charged in the matter but has
since turned State witness.
Rugnath
claims he knew nothing about prostitution at the hotel, located in Durban’s
Point Road area — known for its red-light activities — and left the running of
his hotel to Budhram.
The girl
conceded under cross-examination from Nepaul that she never solicited any
business at the Inn Town Lodge, but on the street. She would bring clients back
to the hotel where they paid R30, either to a receptionist or one of Zweni’s
“runners”. She said she knew the receptionist as “Auntie”.
The girl
told the court that in 2010 she was diagnosed as HIV-positive and had
tuberculosis. She said a sister at the KwaMashu polyclinic informed her of her
diagnosis.
The trial
continues.
-SAPA
