ASIANS SEX SCANDAL: WHISTLEBLOWER PORTRAYED AS CULPRIT

MBABANE – The story of female emaSwati employees who are allegedly sexually abused in some Asian shops has taken a twist.

This is because the ‘whistleblower’, Farooq Shazaib, has also been fingered as the one who allegedly sexually harassed numerous women employed at the shop. This was disclosed by one of the directors of Collection Centre, Muhammad Malik Azeem, who was among the three Asian businessmen accused by Shazaib of sexually abusing female workers. The other Asians who are implicated are Malik Sunny and Qaisar Malik, who are all of Pakistan origin. Azeem made these allegations in an affidavit where he is disputing the claims levelled against them by the whistleblower, one of which was that they had since left the Kingdom of Eswatini.

Shazaib had alleged that the businessmen were now fugitives to justice and claimed that after reporting the alleged sexual abuse and kidnapping cases to the police, the defendants learnt that they were about to be arrested for their alleged criminal activities and they fled the country. “The defendants are no longer in the Kingdom of Eswatini as they are believed to be in South Africa,” Shazaib had claimed. He further claimed that the ladies whom they are alleged to have sexually assaulted were in fact relieved of their duties after they were caught on camera. According to Azeem, the allegations started after Shazaib alleged that some of his countrymen, who worked at the shop, had raped his girlfriend, who is a liSwati, around November 2018. He asserted that police investigated and did not find any evidence and Shazaib apologised by writing a letter or affidavit in the presence of the police.

“Shazaib is the one who was behaving in a manner that leaves a lot to be desired. He was the one who had a sexual relationship with one of the ladies at the shop,” alleged Azeem. These are allegations contained in an answering affidavit whose veracity is still to be tested in court. To substantiate his claims, Azeem has annexed photographs of some of the ladies (alleged survivors of sexual assault) who were in the company of Shazaib in different eateries around Manzini. “They would go to restaurants in Manzini and enjoy meals while sitting in a comfortable manner,” he claimed. Giving a background of how the businessmen had come into contact with Shazaib, Azeem claimed the so-called whistleblower approached him and requested part- time employment as he was a student at the University of Eswatini (UNESWA). After the alleged rape incident, Azeem stated that they reached an agreement with Shazaib that it would no longer be good to have him as an employee and he stopped working for Collection Centre. “The applicant (Shazaib), being angry with the director’s decision to fire him as an employee of the shop, he again started on a campaign of trying to discredit us,” submitted the respondent (Azeem).

Demonstrate

He narrated that they discovered in Shazaib’s mobile phone communications that he was organising people to demonstrate against them. To this claim, Azeem annexed copies of a printout of Shazaib’s WhatsApp messages. In the WhatsApp messages, which now form part of the evidence, Shazaib, in a conversation with a person called Khaya Cyprus University, spoke of organising about 40-50 people who would picket in front of the shop.

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