A senior Local Government official and his wife are expected to appear before the Bushbuckridge Magistrate's Court on Monday on charges of rape involving two minors, aged between 13 and 15.
Police said the 49-year-old man is employed as a Director at a Gauteng Municipality.
Spokesperson, Colonel Donald Mdhuli, said reports suggest that between 2019 and 2020, the cousins, were lured from Mozambique by their aunt “under false pretenses that they were going to receive a better education in South Africa.”.
However, he said the girls were kept as slaves and subjected to “gross human rights violations” at the couple’s place near Bushbuckridge.
Mdhuli said a concerned citizen reported the matter to the police leading to their arrest.
He said the couple faces additional charges of contravening the Immigration Act, as the girls were “illegally brought into the country without proper documentation", human trafficking and conspiracy to commit a crime.
The children were removed to a place of safety.
