Warning on trafficking

[caption id="attachment_210657" align="aligncenter" width="630"] Pholile Maneli has produced a video warning on human trafficking.
Picture: Fredlin Adriaan[/caption]

PE film producer creates video showing how women are lured into the trap

Motivated by the many reports of horrific abuse against women, a Port Elizabeth producer has put together a video creating awareness around human trafficking.

The two-part film, available on YouTube, gives the viewer a raw glimpse into how women and young girls are targeted, drugged, raped and in some cases murdered by men who appear ordinary.

“Women are invited to the VIP tables in nightclubs. Men then drug them, rape them and sell them into human trafficking,” producer Pholile Maneli said.

Three weeks ago, Maneli and her crew spent a weekend filming the sequences at the Isango Gate Hotel and Spa in Summerstrand.

Hoping to create awareness about the scourge of human trafficking, especially in Nelson Mandela Bay, Maneli’s production company, Optasia, in collaboration with events company Sisterhood, created the video to show to young women and girls from vulnerable communities.

“We want them [potential victims] to see what is happening out there and to teach them to be careful,” Maneli said.

“It doesn’t happen in a dark corner and the people doing this [trafficking] are good-looking, familiar people,” she warned.

After chatting to a human trafficking survivor in Cape Town, Maneli said she felt motivated to bring a warning to young girls and women to be vigilant.

“Before I became involved in the project, I personally thought human trafficking happened in Europe or northern Africa,” she said.

“After researching the subject, I found out that most people who have escaped human trafficking became prostitutes.”

Maneli told of a case where a young woman who was trafficked fell pregnant and was forced to have an abortion before being sent out on the streets again.

The 29-year-old University of Cape Town graduate said she used her passion for film to reach communities on different levels to create awareness about current and important issues.

“We are looking at going nationally with this [production] and message but we want the local impact first,” Maneli said.

Targeting women in communities including Kwazakhele, Joe Slovo, Walmer, Zwide and Helenvale, Maneli said that after showing the videos there would be an interactive session to discuss the issues and create awareness.

She wanted schools and universities to be involved as well.

Born and raised in Swaziland, Maneli studied filmmaking at UCT before meeting her Port Elizabeth-born husband, Nkosinathi, 37.

Through her company, Maneli offers short courses on filmmaking.

“You would be surprised at how many children from the Eastern Cape want to do film,” she said.