Five women were rescued from alleged human traffickers in a Durban North plush house on Wednesday.

The women, from Gauteng, were lured to KwaZulu-Natal in Durban with job promises as call centre agents.

Provincial police spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Nqobile Gwala said the women, aged between 19 and 27, alleged that one of them met an individual in Johannesburg who told her about a job opportunity in Durban which would require her working at a call centre.

The job will entail selling sim cards to the elite in society.

“He went as far as going to the woman’s mother to explain the legitimacy of the job offer and was in possession of what looked like authentic documentation to back up his claims. The woman then convinced four more women, her relatives being among the four, to take up the job offer. The five boarded a bus paid for by their prospective employers from Johannesburg on Monday evening, February 28 2022 and arrived in Durban on Tuesday morning. They were picked up from the bus terminal and driven to a very luxurious house in Durban North,” said Gwala in a statement.

She said on arrival at the house they were asked to freshen up and rest before meeting the boss who was going to outline the details of their work.

Gwala it was during the meeting with the boss that the story about the job changed.

“They were informed that they were going to be involved in the sex trade business. They were instructed not to go to the front of the house where people might see them. The girls also alleged that they were kept in one room where the curtains were always drawn. They allege that there was a time where the boss had called them in one by one and had touched them inappropriately,” she said.

One of the women was able to use her phone to get help from the outside.

At midday on Wednesday a police operation resulted in the rescue of the women. No arrests have been made and a case docket for human trafficking was opened and handed over to the Hawks for further investigation.