VIDEO: FELICIA JELE FROM ESWATINI – MY VOICE OF DESPERATION FOR A JOB AND HOW IT WAS USED AGAINST ME
I never imagined that my search for a job in South Africa would turn into something I would one day have to confess publicly, with pain and shame in my heart.
My name is Felicia Jele. I am from Eswatini, young, petite, and very new to city life. When I arrived, I was hopeful. Like many girls, I believed that if I tried hard enough, if I followed the right opportunities, my life could change.
Instead, my desperation became my weakness.
There is a video circulating now, and many South Africans are watching it in silence. Some are shocked. Some are entertained. Many are choosing to ignore it. But that video is my reality.
In the video, I appear innocent because I was innocent. I had not yet learned how cruel city life can be, especially to a foreign girl who desperately needs work. I was promised an opportunity — a job that would help me survive and move forward.
What I was offered instead was a choice no young woman should ever have to make.
I was asked to engage in intimacy with a man associated with African casting, known as Ivo, with the promise that I would secure a job and “jump the queue” ahead of other girls. I was told this was how things worked. I was made to believe that this was normal, acceptable, and necessary.
I said yes — not because I wanted to, but because I was desperate. I clearly stated that I needed the job. I thought I was choosing survival.
But let me ask you this:
Since when is exploitation allowed in South Africa?
Since when is it acceptable to use false promises of employment to take advantage of vulnerable women — especially foreign women with no support system?
Did I get the job?
No. I did not.
What I got instead was regret, humiliation, and the realization that my body was treated as currency — one that could be bargained, evaluated, and discarded.
What hurts even more is hearing that other girls allegedly received R10,000 for similar encounters. I was told — directly and indirectly — that I received far less because I was “inexperienced.” That sentence still echoes in my mind. It made me understand something deeply disturbing: that the amount paid depends on “performance,” not humanity.
Is this what we have become?
I was taken advantage of under false pretenses, paid an amount that suggested I was worth less, and then left with nothing — no job, no protection, no justice.
And now the video exists.
My pain is now content. My trauma is now entertainment. And South Africa is mostly silent.
I am sharing this not for sympathy, but for accountability. For awareness. For change.
Because if this can happen to me — a young girl from Eswatini searching for honest work — it can happen to many more.
Silence protects predators.
Speaking out is the first step toward justice.
I am Felicia Jele.
And this is my truth.
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