Times Of Swaziland: ASIAN WHISTLEBLOWER  REJECTS E0.5M BRIBE

ASIAN WHISTLEBLOWER  REJECTS E0.5M BRIBE
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BY SIBUSISO ZWANE on 11/03/2019 08:38:00


MANZINI - Seemingly, the Asian businessmen who are implicated in the alleged
sexual abuse of their workers are quite desperate to ensure that their cases do
not see the light of day.
This is according to the whistleblower, Farooq Shahaizb, who claimed that he had
rejected a bribe amounting to E0.5m to keep his mouth shut and that of the
survivors.
“They approached a mutual friend to talk me about the bribe but I refused it.
I did not consider it because I am not a pimp and I am not for sale,” he said.
Shahaizb added that he believed that he was doing the right thing by standing
for the truth. He maintained that he did not have personal grudges with his
countrymen but said it was all about what was right and wrong.
On another note, the Pakistan national said he feared that some people in the
justice structures of Eswatini were more into money than ensuring that justice
was served.
Lost
On that note, he said he and his family had lost over E70 000 on the matter
through robbery (E2 200), extortion (E50 000 ransom) and withheld shares (E18
000).
He alleged that through the little connections he had in the country, he was
still trying to take matter up with officials in the Royal Eswatini Police
Service (REPS).
The Pakistan national said he was working on taking the matter up with senior
officers in the police organisation because he was aware that the people he was
up against were working like the Mafia.
Shahaizb alleged that the issue of bribery started when he called one of the
Asian businessmen, who was based in Johannesburg and notified him that his two
younger brothers had made the shop a sex work centre where they harassed the
girls they had employed.
He claimed that he even told him one girl had approached the police. However,
Shahaizb alleged that what the businessman said to him was embarrassing,
literally.
“He told me to try to speak with the girl and bribe her to get the matter
sorted out. However, from the onset, I explained to him that this mess was
created by his relatives and he should not include me in whatever he was
planning to do with it as I did not want to be part of it,” he claimed.
Kidnapped
The Pakistan national claimed that he was kidnapped for three days where threats
to have both his legs cut off and sent to his family back in his home country
were made. He also claimed that had had been receiving threats from anonymous
callers. However, despite all this, he decided to stay put so that he could
testify in the girls’ cases as he was a witness. He claimed that while working
with his countrymen, he allegedly saw them forcing female employees to watch
pornographic videos with them from their mobile phones and also caught another
red-handed, grabbing a girl by her neck and forcing her mouth to his private
parts. He alleged that the incidents took place during working hours in the
shops and storeroom respectively.
The cases of sexual abuse by the Asian businessmen against the Eswatini girls
they had employed are still being investigated by the police.