Sex trap snares girls
19 July 2008, 12:17
Cape Town teenagers, some from top southern suburbs schools, are being duped into prostitution by misleading advertisements offering huge salaries and incentive bonuses.
The advertisements in daily newspapers offer posts for "masseuse/receptionist R8 100 per month or potential earnings of R9 500 per month plus", for an upmarket massage salon.
But a Cape Town businessman, who now lives abroad and is part of an international anti-human trafficking organisation, said two of the establishments - one in Long Street and the other in Thibault Square - are, in fact, brothels offering sex to clients.
The man, who prefers not to be identified because of the nature of his work, said some of the victims were former pupils of upmarket southern suburbs schools.
The man said the often naive girls were misled into believing they had landed a legitimate job with a good salary where they would receive training in Swedish massage.
The money is good but it is not paid for a simple massage. Instead pressure is put on the girls to perform sexual acts with sometimes up to five men a day, said the man, who added some of the girls became pregnant or contracted HIV while others were fired on the spot to make way for new girls.
He said his organisation had since tried to help some of the girls leave by giving them bursaries to study.
But only about 5 percent of girls actually left, he said, while the others have become hooked on the money and drugs, often leaving for other brothels and escort agencies in the city.
Affidavits by two of the girls, which have been handed to the police and to chairperson of the City of Cape Town's safety and security portfolio committee, JP Smith, described how they were misled into working at the establishments and what kind of acts they were encouraged to perform.
A 19-year-old, who said she responded to an advertisement for a masseuse/receptionist at a salary of R8 100 a month, was told by the manageress that she would be doing simple Swedish massages and "no funny business".
But the pretty blonde was soon encouraged to get more "involved" and offer extra services.
These, she explains in the affidavit, varied from a "full house" at R450 to blow jobs at R270. There was also "body to body" and "touching" at lower rates.
The girl, who has since left, said she realised then that the company was a brothel and not a massage establishment, and that she had been misled.
A 21-year-old, who worked at the company in Long Street for three months, described how she was manipulated into performing acts she had never expected would be part of the job she had landed.
In her affidavit she writes: "My first massage was done with my clothes on. But after that it was a rule we had to strip naked."
She said that after a few days of doing plain massages she was asked to do "pelvics".
"Pelvics has various names such as the 'doorknob' which involved rubbing the head of the penis. A full house meant full sex and that was the highest. A girl I know says it is now R400," she wrote.
"Sometimes the demands were awful," she said adding that they had to occasionally go to hotels to service clients.
The advertisements in daily newspapers offer posts for "masseuse/receptionist R8 100 per month or potential earnings of R9 500 per month plus", for an upmarket massage salon.
But a Cape Town businessman, who now lives abroad and is part of an international anti-human trafficking organisation, said two of the establishments - one in Long Street and the other in Thibault Square - are, in fact, brothels offering sex to clients.
The man, who prefers not to be identified because of the nature of his work, said some of the victims were former pupils of upmarket southern suburbs schools.
The man said the often naive girls were misled into believing they had landed a legitimate job with a good salary where they would receive training in Swedish massage.
The money is good but it is not paid for a simple massage. Instead pressure is put on the girls to perform sexual acts with sometimes up to five men a day, said the man, who added some of the girls became pregnant or contracted HIV while others were fired on the spot to make way for new girls.
He said his organisation had since tried to help some of the girls leave by giving them bursaries to study.
But only about 5 percent of girls actually left, he said, while the others have become hooked on the money and drugs, often leaving for other brothels and escort agencies in the city.
Affidavits by two of the girls, which have been handed to the police and to chairperson of the City of Cape Town's safety and security portfolio committee, JP Smith, described how they were misled into working at the establishments and what kind of acts they were encouraged to perform.
A 19-year-old, who said she responded to an advertisement for a masseuse/receptionist at a salary of R8 100 a month, was told by the manageress that she would be doing simple Swedish massages and "no funny business".
But the pretty blonde was soon encouraged to get more "involved" and offer extra services.
These, she explains in the affidavit, varied from a "full house" at R450 to blow jobs at R270. There was also "body to body" and "touching" at lower rates.
The girl, who has since left, said she realised then that the company was a brothel and not a massage establishment, and that she had been misled.
A 21-year-old, who worked at the company in Long Street for three months, described how she was manipulated into performing acts she had never expected would be part of the job she had landed.
In her affidavit she writes: "My first massage was done with my clothes on. But after that it was a rule we had to strip naked."
She said that after a few days of doing plain massages she was asked to do "pelvics".
"Pelvics has various names such as the 'doorknob' which involved rubbing the head of the penis. A full house meant full sex and that was the highest. A girl I know says it is now R400," she wrote.
"Sometimes the demands were awful," she said adding that they had to occasionally go to hotels to service clients.
- This article was originally published on page 1 of The Cape Argus on July 19, 2008
Pretoria
