Five life terms for accused in human trafficking case

THE WESTERN Cape High Court handed down a hefty sentence of five life terms in prison to a Cameroonian man who was convicted alongside his wife and cousin for trafficking women from Springbok, Northern Cape, and the Eastern Cape to work as sex slaves on the streets of the Mother City.

Dramatic scenes unfolded at the Western Cape High Court in Cape Town this week as Edward Ayuk burst into tears in the dock as Judge Alma de Wet handed down the sentence.

Ayuk, along with his cousin Yannick, has been in custody for over seven years after being busted by the Hawks for running a brothel in the Cape Town suburb of Brooklyn in September 2017.

The duo went on trial in November 2021 alongside Ayuk’s estranged wife, Leandrew Williams, in what was dubbed the biggest human trafficking case before a local court.

The trio were slapped with over 40 charges including rape, kidnapping, assault and various other offences for running a brothel in Milnerton.

During the mammoth trial, several of the women were transported from their home towns to take the stand. They told the court of drug abuse, beatings and the semantics of working on the streets of Cape Town.

Williams also took the stand in her own defence, denying she had trafficked any women from Springbok.

After the State closed its case, defence lawyer advocate Bash Sibda successfully argued for the acquittal of 27 charges against Yannick.

They were later found guilty by De Wet on various other charges and Williams was taken into custody after having been released on bail several years earlier.

After they were convicted, Williams turned on the father of her children and confessed that he had beaten and sold women, saying that she too was a victim but was too scared to speak up.

In her lengthy judgment, De Wet explained that she had analysed all the victim assessment reports and the findings of the social workers and explained that many of the victims were left traumatised after being treated like commodities.

She said that while she could find no compelling reasons to divert from the prescribed minimum sentence for Edward, it was clear that his cousin, Yannick, while he resumed operations of the brothel in the absence of Edward, had not exhibited violence towards the victims.

De Wet highlighted the drug dealing charge against Edward and said it was clear that the use of crack cocaine by the victims was a tool used to enslave them.

“One of the first things that Accused 1 (Edward Ayuk) did was to get them to smoke rocks. This was part and parcel of his tactics to manipulate, coerce and intimidate them into doing his bidding.”

De Wet said the victims were stripped of their dignity and described their experiences as the “worst form of abuse”.

“The complainants were defenceless victims who were subjected to abuse of the worst form. They were treated like objects and stripped of their dignity as human beings. They were treated like commodities by the accused for their greed of money and power.”

De Wet sentenced Edward to five life terms of imprisonment for every count of human trafficking, 15 years for living off the earnings of prostitution, 10 years for every count of kidnapping, 10 years for assault and another 10 years for tampering with ID documents.

But the judge was interrupted when Edward was seen bursting into tears in the dock as he refused to listen any further.

“Jesus Christ! What have I done?” he was heard shouting as the police tried to console him and convince him to return to the courtroom.

Williams was handed 20 years on three counts of human trafficking while Yannick was handed a 20 years sentence on various counts of human trafficking, using the services of a prostitute, kidnapping and other charges.

Williams was seen blowing kisses to her family in the public gallery as she shouted: “Did you bring the twak? Don’t worry, God is still alive.”