A Khayelitsha family are searching for a 42-year-old woman, who they believe might have been a human trafficking victim after she disappeared while visiting her new lover in Cape Town.
Phumla Brunette Stofile was last seen by her family on Friday, February 18, as she made her way to see a man the family knew as “Thando”.
Phumeza Maroza Stofile, sister to the missing 42-year-old, said Brunette met “Thando” towards the end of 2020 in a taxi and they exchanged numbers.
“They started seeing each other, and this guy said he lives in Sea Point. My sister was excited because he lived in a ’fancy’ neighbourhood. She would go meet him at times and come back home with no hassle,” she recounted.
“This guy once took her to a house in Claremont, and she said that the house appeared to have an ’underground’ entrance. I assumed she meant that the house had a basement, and they entered through the basement.
According to Stofile, “Thando” last year took the mother of two to a house in Ekuphumleni in Khayelitsha for her to meet his “aunt”.
“My sister went there, and the so-called aunt was there and never said that the man was lying about her being his aunt. So my sister knew her as his aunt,” she said.
Stofile believes that “Thando” might have been part of a trafficking syndicate and lured her sister by ensuring she trusted him.
“On February 18, it was a Friday, he called her and told her to meet him in town. My sister agreed, and as her friends were accompanying her to the taxi rank, she turned around to go home.
“She told her friends that the boyfriend had just told her to wear red and white coloured wrist bangles, sunglasses, a purse and for her to dye her hair.
“So she dyed her hair blonde, wore white jeans that he had bought her, a red top, some wrist bangles, and she had to go borrow the shades from a friend. He had told her that she could not enter the place they were going to without the sunglasses. And that was the last time we saw her.
“We honestly think that my sister is a victim of human trafficking, especially because he was so descriptive with what she must wear. He also told her to bring her ID and her CV, and he would give her a job as he claimed he worked at the Department of Tourism as a senior manager,” she said.
According to the family, Brunette called one of her cousins and told her to look after her 8-year-old daughter while she was away.
“On that call, my cousin asked her whether she was in Sea Point, and she said yes. The cousin then asked her to bring her some goodies, and she laughed. And that was the very last time we heard from her.
“We tried to call her after a week because it was strange for her not to have come back home after so long. At first, her phone just rang without anyone picking it up, and then it just went completely off,” Stofile said.
The family went to the house in Ekuphumleni, where the alleged aunt lived, and the woman allegedly told them that she was not actually his aunt.
“She told us that she only knows him through her son, who once came with him drunk, and asked that he sleeps here. The aunt also said she knew him as Lihle and not Thando.
“We were also told of another guy called Stanley who was also supposedly acquainted with him. When we finally got hold of Stanley, he said that this guy was actually a crook, and he is not even South African. He is a foreigner but used the Xhosa names, Thando or Lihle,” she added.
The family describes Brunette as a very reserved person who kept to herself a lot.
Western Cape police confirmed to IOL that the family opened the case on Sunday, March 6 at Lingelethu police station in Khayelitsha. Police said there was an ongoing investigation into the matter.
IOL