‘Boity’ speaks out on how she almost fell for human traffickers...

The 8^th of March marks the International Women’s day and in the light of the celebration of phenomenal women I could not help but blog about one of my favourite celebrities and how she almost fell for human traffickers and what i particularly learnt from her experience is that whether you are a celebrity or not, whether you are rich or poor, whether you are big or small we all can be victims of human trafficking.

Speaking in an interview on Motswako (SABC2), on Monday, Boitumelo Boity Thulo revealed to women rights activist, Penny Lebyane how she was conned into believing that she had landed a modelling gig but it was her worst nightmare when she found out that she had easily fallen for human traffickers.

Boity related her story that it all started when she was approached by a friend of hers and that friend told her that he had managed to land her a gig with Neutrogena Cosmetics. Boity exclaimed that she was very ecstatic at the news as Neutrogena is a big international brand and her being part of it was going to mean tremendous things for her career. She went on to reveal that these traffickers had really planned their moves and it was very difficult to tell that it was all a bluff. She said that this friend of hers gave her contact details of “Clarrisa”, a lady that was supposedly working for Neutrogena and she sounded convincing and “Clarrisa” made arrangements that Boity was to fly down to Capetown where she was going to finalise the paperwork for the gig.

She took the flight to Capetown and to her surprise a man came to pick her up and that man told her that he had paid lots of money for Boity to be his escort. It is at this point in time that Boity realised that something was awfully wrong and asked this man to drop her off and luckily the man was a good person and dropped her off. A part of her still wanted to believe that this was all a misunderstanding as she had her eye on Neutrogena. Luckily she had a friend living nearby and that friend came to pick her up where the man had dropped her off and that is how she narrowly escaped to be trafficked.

Human trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery where people profit from the control and exploitation of others. Victims of human trafficking include children involved in the sex trade, adults age 18 or over who are coerced or deceived into commercial sex acts and anyone forced into different forms of labour or services. Individuals may be forced to work in highly exploitative conditions with little or no pay.

My message therefore to all of you this Women’s day, especially to women as they appear to be the prime targets of human trafficking is let us all be on guard and be alert of these traffickers, let us unite and fight human trafficking and gender based violence among other problems and remember WATHINTA ABAFAZI, WATHINTA IMBOKODO- YOU STRIKE A WOMAN, YOU STRIKE A ROCK!!!!!!!!

                                                ...HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY...