A 16-year old South African teenage girl is facing human trafficking charges for allegedly luring two 15-year old fellow girl scholars from Phuthaditjhaba into a prostitution ring run by foreign nationals.

Last week, Free State police called on the public to assist in finding all three teenagers who hail from Phuthaditjhaba which is located in the eastern part of the province, after they were reported missing by concerned family members who last saw them on 20 November 2020, at a house in Mantsubise Street.

Free State police spokesperson, Motantsi Makhele said at the time of the disappearance that all three girls were attending Mafube Intermediate School and were in fact dressed in their school uniforms when they were last seen.

Those school uniforms were found dumped in a refuse bin at one of the victim’s homes in the Phuthaditjhaba.

Makhele says a few days later, the trio was spotted posting pictures on social media. Preliminary investigations led authorities to Sasolburg, where the two 15-year old victims were found outside a tavern in Zamdela.

Makhele says they were taken in by the Family, Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit, and later returned into the custody of their families.

Meanwhile, the accused teenager was arrested and transported back to Phuthaditjhaba, where she will be making her first court appearance in the local Magistrate Court on Monday, 7 December.

The 16-year old girl has been identified as the middleman in the kidnapping, the people she worked for – the unnamed foreign nationals – are still at large.

Police have since called on the public to assist them with information that may lead to the arrest of the culprits.