A SELF-CONFESSED brothel queen from George has received a suspended sentence after confessing to her crimes.
Hawks spokesperson Warrant Officer Zinzi Hani says Nyaradzo Ellen Gewdzi pleaded guilty and was sentenced by the Tembalethu Regional Court for contravening the Sexual Offences Act.
Hani says the 40-year-old vrou was found guilty of living off the earnings of prostitution and running a brothel.
She reports: "The sentence followed after an intelligence-driven operation executed by the George Serious Organised Crime Investigation team together with George Vispol on 25 May 2024 in George.
“It was reported that the team initiated a surveillance on a identified brothel.
“A marked SAPS vehicle was observed at the premises, attending to a reported assault. After the SAPS vehicle left, the team made an inquiry at the station as to the purpose of their visit to the address.
“Thereafter they interviewed the complainant, a 25-year-old Zimbabwean national, who had reported being assaulted for not adhering to brothel rules.”
Hani says during the interview, the suspected trafficker, also a Zimbabwean national, arrived at the station to enquire about the whereabouts of the complainant.
She was advised that she was busy with the police.
Hani adds: "The victim was then removed to the Hawks office for continued interviews and taking of statement.
“It was at that moment where it was established that she was a victim of trafficking in persons and thereafter she was taken to George Hospital for medical care, and referred to an accredited shelter.
“The Hawks team went back to the station where the suspect was still present and she was immediately arrested and detained.”
Both counts were taken together for the purpose of sentencing and Gewdzi was sentenced to two-years imprisonment which, was wholly suspended for three years.
She was further declared unfit to possess a firearm. A few months before Gewdzi’s arrest, the Hawks busted Nontobeko Mathunjwa, 34, in George following an investigation into her plans to sell women into prostitution using escort websites.
At the time. the Hawks revealed that she allegedly trafficked women from West Africa into the Western Cape by smuggling them in shipping containers.
The women were allegedly given fake passports. Information was that the girls were advertised on an escort website and were kept in a residential complex in George.