Hawks secure 202 convictions including a total of 6 life terms and 410 years for human traffickers

The Hawks secured 202 convictions in the third quarter of the 2024/25 financial year, including a combined six life terms plus 410 years' imprisonment for Cameroonian siblings and another woman for trafficking victims for sex work.

Hawks head Lt-Gen Godfrey Lebeya highlighted their successes in the third quarter in cracking serious crimes such as fraud, money laundering, cybercrime, kidnapping for ransom, state capture, drug trafficking and human trafficking.

During that period, the Hawks ensured 1,409 people and 43 businesses or institutions were brought before the courts across the country. 68% of them were foreign nationals while 32% were South Africans.

Compared to the second quarter, out of the 800 people who were prosecuted, 41% were South African while 59% were foreign nationals.

In the third quarter, 186 people and 16 businesses or institutions were convicted, and 222 convicts found guilty in the previous quarter were sentenced during this period, Lebeya said.

These convictions included the sentencing of two Cameroonian siblings Edward Tambe Ayuk and Simon Mwambo as well as Ayuk’s South African wife, Leandre Meryl Williams-Ayuk, for human trafficking.

They were arrested after the serious organised crime investigation unit in Cape Town searched a house in Brooklyn in September 2017, where they found two victims in a small back room that were held captive for sex work.

The victims had been transported by a Citiliner bus by the siblings, Lebeya said, and were fed drugs. One of the victims was found with a broken leg, and the identity document of a woman from Springbok was also found in the house.

It was further found that the trio had also made fraudulent claims to the Road Accident Fund (RAF) with the details of the Cameroonians as the contact people instead of those of the legitimate claimants.

Williams-Ayuk, 40, had also received a large sum of money from the RAF.

“On November 2024, the trio were convicted [by the Cape Town high court] on 12 counts and sentenced separately to a total of six life sentences and 413 years' imprisonment for trafficking in people of which a total of 30 years is suspended,” Lebeya said.

Another conviction was related to the trafficking of a 16-year-old primary schoolgirl, who lived with her grandmother in Ngqamakhwe in the Eastern Cape. The girl was sent to the Western Cape by a woman under the pretence that the girl would marry a 25-year-old man back in 2012.

However, on arrival, she was forced into being married to a then 45-year-old man, Ayanda Wellington Vellem, who was the same age as her mother, Lebeya said.

“During the time, the victim fell sick and was taken to hospital, which necessitated the nurses to trace the family. The matter was reported to the serious organised crime investigation [unit] for further investigation. On September 10, 2012, Ayanda Wellington Vellem, and three other people were arrested [for their involvement].”

Vellem was convicted in July last year on four counts of trafficking in people, rape, contravention of the requirements of customary marriages and assault.

“The other two accused were found not guilty and discharged while the third one passed on before the conclusion of the trial. Vellem was sentenced by the Cape Town regional court to life imprisonment for trafficking in people, life imprisonment for rape, nine months for failing to comply with the requirements of a valid customary marriage and six months' imprisonment for common assault ... Furthermore, his particulars will be entered in the national register of sex offenders and national child protection register,” Lebeya said.

In another successful conviction, a retired major-general, advocate Thuto Phefo, 62, was found guilty of soliciting money from an applicant shortlisted for a position in the legal services department in the Northern Cape.

In August 2017, an applicant applied and was shortlisted for a brigadier position and during the assessment, she was approached by Phefo who gave her a document on what to expect in the interviews.

When she opened the document, she realised it was a case study. However, Phefo had solicited R70,000 from her for the document, of which she paid R48,000, Lebeya said.

Shortly afterwards, an inquiry was opened which resulted in an entrapment operation that led to his arrest after he demanded and received the R22,000 outstanding balance from the applicant.

The woman who had received the brigadier position was dismissed and Phefo was acquitted in an internal departmental case. Phefo then retired in March 2020.

Phefo was however found guilty by the Kimberley regional court in August last year for contravening the Prevention of Combating of Corrupt Activities Act. In October, he was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment, of which two years were suspended.

“In December, his application for leave to appeal against his conviction and sentence was refused by the court.

“At the beginning of the third quarter, the [Hawks] was handling 18,264 dockets with the monetary value of [more than] R1-trillion. A total of 5,616 dockets with a value of R111bn involving 12,607 accused was pending before the various courts in the country. Of those under investigation, 1,836 were pending decision by the National Prosecuting Authority on whether to prosecute or otherwise,” Lebeya said.

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