This is the story of Pluonoa*.

Pluonoa started like most other African girls here. She was poor. Pluonoa dreamed of a better life. One she was offered from a distant relative. Pluonoa was then taken to a small city outside of Johannesburg. In this small city she was raped, beaten, and addicted to tick (Methamphetamines). After this, she was sent out onto the streets to work, selling herself to men for sex.

Now this small city has a reputation for being extremely hot, extremely cold, and extremely boring. Yet, for Pluonoa this city was her worst nightmare. In this city you could not run to the police for fear of their corruption and known ties to the traffickers themselves.

One day Pluonoa was offered a way out of this nightmare from a warm, loving woman who offered a better life. She took it. Pluonoa was then moved to a safe house right outside the city limits. Pluonoa was loved on, she was taken care of, she was given good food, a warm bed, and nice clothes. But Pluonoa had been a slave for too long, a slave to drugs, a slave to a lifestyle she hated, and a slave to her slave master, her trafficker. Pluonoa went back. Seeking drugs, seeking the comfort of a life she hated but knew, we suspect going back because of threats of her family’s safetey.

Pluonoa was killed two days ago. She was pushed off a building by her trafficker. Pluonoa was forced to show her trafficker or slave master where the safe house location was, and then murdered as an example to the rest of the girls in slave labour.

Pluonoa’s story is real. Pluonoa’s story is common.

Justice ACTs.org

*names changed for sensitivity of an open case