A BOTSWANA-BASED Zimbabwean farm worker and his employer have been dragged before the courts in the neighbouring country to answer to a charge of trafficking a minor from Zimbabwe to work on a farm.
According to media reports, Nkosilathi Moyo and his Motswana employer Reuben Masesane Tema are on trial at the Gaborone High Court accused of trafficking a Zimbabwean minor to work at the farm in Letswatswe lands near Lentsweletau.
The two have pleaded not guilty to the charge.
Ndlovu was remanded in custody, while Tema is out on bail.
Allegations are that the two connived to smuggle the minor from Zocholo village in Zimbabwe in December 2019, but formal charges were confirmed in 2021.
Indications were that a social worker, Tlhopho Kebalepile, who assessed the alleged victim, said the minor told her that Moyo, who is his neighbour in Zimbabwe, smuggled him into the country through an ungazetted entry point before they boarded a vehicle to Francistown, then to Lentsweletau.
It is reported that the child told the social worker that he was taken to a farm with beautiful houses, where a certain lady named Mma Pretty welcomed him.
The social worker also told the court that the child said Mma Pretty then introduced Tema as the farm owner and he was immediately shown the sheep and goats he was going to look after.
The minor was allegedly also shown how to vaccinate them.
“The minor said he was promised 800 pula payment per month and new clothes, but was never paid anything. Instead, he was ill-treated and forced to do other home chores,” the social worker told the court.
It was revealed that when the social worker took the minor from Tema’s farm sometime in 2020, he appeared traumatised, distressed and confused.
The minor also indicated that he only spoke Ndebele and did not know his age since he did not have any official identification documents.
The court heard that the child was taken to a safe place and provided with food, clothing, toiletry and psychotherapy before a pathologist was engaged to confirm his age, who stated that he was born in 2008.
The social worker also indicated that the child was living in a safe house for four years and started to learn speaking in English since all the tenants were English speakers.
The minor reportedly developed a personal relationship with a Nigerian trafficking victim, who is his agemate.
However, defence lawyer for the two, Gabaikanngwe Kebalepile, during cross-examination of the social worker, accused her of cooking up information to pin his clients to a crime they did not commit.
Kebalepile said Tema had never employed herdsmen for his small stock and only employed vegetable growers at his farm.
The lawyer said Tema also knew nothing about the alleged trafficking.
The lawyer told the witness to desist from referring to the pathologist’s report since she knew nothing about it, arguing that the pathologist was yet to testify in court.
He said there was also no proof that the method used to establish the minor’s age was not erroneous.
However, indications are that the witness insisted that she was present when the pathologist used an X-ray machine to assess the bones, body fluids and pubic hair to establish the age of the minor and that she was simply performing her duties to protect the child.
She told the court that the minor told her that he was from a very poor family with no source of income.
It is reported that another State witness, who worked on a neighbouring farm, told the court that he saw the minor herding Tema’s livestock on several occasions in 2020 before security forces intervened and took him away.