Employment and Labour on seven Chinese nationals charged with human trafficking and child labour

The long-drawn trial of seven Chinese nationals charged with human trafficking and child labour was entering the final phases with the Gauteng Division of the High Court (Johannesburg) announcing that judgment in the matter is set for early next year.

Today the State and defence presented their heads of argument.

Prosecutor Advocate Valencia Dube in summary said there was overwhelming evidence before the Court on the goings at the Chinese Beautiful City factory to find the accused guilty.

While his counterpart on the defence lawyer J. Kruger summed his heads by saying the State was throwing its net wide to try and catch every little fish into the net". Kruger accused the multi-departmental inspection blitz team of having a predetermined intention to build a human trafficking case against the Chinese.

Both the defence and the State were arguing their “heads" in the long-dragging matter that started in 2019.

In the matter, Chinese nationals appearing in the trial are: Kevin Tsao Shu-Uei, Chen Hui, Qin Li, Jiaqing Zhou, Ma Biao, Dai Junying, and Zhang Zhilian. The seven are facing schedule six offences.

The accused individuals are facing counts of human trafficking, contravention of Immigration Act, kidnapping, pointing a firearm, debt bondage, benefitting from the services of a victim of trafficking, conduct that facilitates trafficking, illegally assisting person(s) to remain in South Africa, and failure to comply with duties of an employer.

They were arrested on 12 November 2019 in a joint operation carried out at their premises of a company called Beautiful City Pty Ltd based at Village Deep in Johannesburg. The joint inspection blitz was carried out by the Department of Employment and Labour's Inspection and Enforcement Services (IES) branch together with the South African Police Service (SAPS)/Hawks Unit and the Department of Home Affairs.

The joint operation uncovered illegal immigrants some of whom were minors working under horrible conditions and kept in the locked premises of a factory called Beautiful City. The factory produced cotton fibre sheets.

In the trial five of the accused are out on bail and the other two (accused number two and seven) are in custody for violating their bail conditions – by trying to skip the country.

Advocate Dube argued that there was no dispute that accused number one was manager of the factory and he and co-accused were employers. She said the accused worked together is furthering a common purpose.

She said the accused exploited the Malawians knowingly that they were vulnerable. Advocate Dube further argued that the accused further made an admission in violating the country's immigration laws and labour laws by hiring people without papers, not adhering to basic conditions of employment, not adhering to health and safety and paying wages below national minimum wage.

She said to argue that the accused did not know the laws was far-fetched considering that their operations were registered with SARS and the companies' registrar.

Kruger argued that there was an eighth accused missing in Court, which was Beautiful City (the company owned by the Chinese). He said the State had not acted procedurally in the matter. His argument was that there was supposed to be an arrest, followed by a warning and issuing of summons.

“I am not here to assist the State on its case. There is a regularity here and the State must rectify," he said. He said the Malawians, which the State was trying to protect came to South Africa on their own volition and were not trafficked.

Judgment in the trial is set for 30 January 2025.

For more information, contact:
Teboho Thejane
Departmental Spokesperson
Cell: 082 697 0694
E-mail: Teboho.Thejane@labour.gov.za