JOHANNESBURG, Sept 10 (The African Portal) – A South African court has convicted seven Chinese nationals and sentenced them to a combined 140 years in prison for smuggling Malawians into South Africa and subjecting them to forced labour.
Each of the seven convicts will serve 20 years of the total sentence.
The group — Kevin Tsao, Chen Hui, Qin Li, Jiaqing Zhou, Ma Biao, Dai Junying, and Zhang Zhilian — were found guilty on 158 out of 160 counts brought against them.
The four men and three women were convicted of human trafficking and kidnapping earlier this year by the South African court.
Their sentencing comes nearly six years after their arrest, when local authorities raided a factory in Johannesburg and found 91 Malawian nationals — 37 of them children — working in appalling conditions.
Human trafficking remains a major concern in South Africa, with the country regarded as a “source, transit, and destination,” according to the government.
Their offences included assisting illegal immigrants to remain in South Africa and violating the country’s labour laws by failing to register their operations and keep proper financial records, among others.
The factory raid followed a tip-off from a worker who managed to escape.
Investigations later revealed that employees were forced to work 11-hour shifts, seven days a week, without proper training or safety equipment.
They were also paid far below South Africa’s minimum wage of $1.64 (£1.22) per hour, with deductions taken if they requested time off.
According to South African labour laws, employees cannot work more than nine hours a day and are generally entitled to a “weekly rest period of at least 36 consecutive hours,” including Sunday, unless otherwise agreed.
Authorities said the victims had been smuggled into the country in shipping containers.
Mr. Tsao worked as a manager at the factory, named Beautiful City, while his co-accused served as supervisors, according to local news site News24. The factory produced inner cotton for blankets using recycled material.
The Department of Labour, which participated in the 2019 raid, welcomed the sentencing and called for greater collaboration among government departments to “root out all these issues.”
