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A Gauteng homeowner was horrified to learn that his property, which had been rented out for the last seven months, was used as a prison where 13 Ethiopians were held captive without food.

On Tuesday night, the captives, some as young as 14, broke through the windows and doors of the three-bedroom suburban house in Parkhurst, north of Johannesburg, to flee. Some had their hands shackled and sustained injuries during the breakout.

They were rescued by a guard from a nearby security business while running in separate directions looking for help.

Police are investigating a possible case of human trafficking or smuggling, but believe the tenant had allegedly used fake documents to get the lease. The tenant has since disappeared after last week’s incident.

“Everything was fine when he was filling out the information for the estate agent. We had been in regular contact with him [before the incident]. We did not notice anything wrong. Our last call to him was in December, and even then, nothing was out of the ordinary. I didn’t think all of this could happen,” said the owner.

The property owner, who did not want to be named, said he was horrified upon learning that his house had been ‘turned into a prison’.

“They destroyed my place. I have to fix a lot of things like the doors and windows. We have been renting this home out for more than 10 years and I have never come across something like this. I have never ever had a problem, and this is the first time something like this has happened. My wife was born here and she’s 68 years old.”

The Parkhurst home on 11th Street is your typical suburban home with high walls and big gates, which was meant to protect from outside danger, but instead became a prison.

“They broke through the window, and they must have run around the property looking for an exit and managed to find it at the corner wall between my property and the neighbour’s. They bent the electric fence wiring and then proceeded to run down the road towards the river, but the security company had already been in the area and caught them before they could escape and rounded them up,” said the owner.

The owner was alerted to a break in after which he contacted 24/7 Security. Grant Moulder, a response team leader who arrived at the scene said “Initially we thought it was a break-in, so the police were called and when they arrived, we were told to breach the place and go over the walls..

Once inside the property, they found a broken window and a broken door, so they thought that someone had broken in. He continued, “Initially four people had escaped, but they found nine more people in the house. They all looked fine but there was one injured, he cut himself on the window because it was quite a sharp jagged edge.”

After figuring out what was really happening, the responders contacted the Hawks. Hawks W/O Thatohatsi Mavimbela said among the 13 found, four were minors aged between 14 and 15 years.

“Seven of them have been taken to hospital for treatment of injuries sustained while attempting to run away from authorities, and the minors have been taken to a place of safety. An inquiry has been opened to establish whether this is a case of human trafficking or smuggling,” said Mavimbela.

Neighbours told The Sowetan, “You’d never imagined that this type of thing would happen, they were malnourished and they were limping as well. It’s a very terrible situation, they also looked to be young, in their 20s.”

[source:thesowetan]