Thai sex workers who are also illegal immigrants would rather stay in South Africa than go back home, as they are "better off here".
So said one of many Thai prostitutes who have worked in Richards Bay for the past three years when the Sunday Tribune visited a well-known sports bar on Friday night.
The bar - which the manager has denied is a brothel - is situated in a shopping centre and also has Chinese, coloured, white and black women working there.
While I waited to get in, two men kept watch on the parking bays while the guard at the gate asked me how old I was. "Leave him alone, he's driving a car, so he's old enough," said one of the men before the guard smiled and opened the door for me.
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The women in the bar looked like they sold sex - that is, apart from the rather brawny bar-lady. Most were beautiful and well-dressed.
I had my first drink before a Thai woman, who went by the name of Pat or "whatever" I wanted to call her, approached me. She said she was 19 years old when she arrived in South Africa after responding to an au pair advert in a Thai newspaper. She spoke fluent English like most of the women.
Four women had already winked or danced salaciously against me before I could finish my first drink. One blew a kiss to get my attention.
One Asian woman walked into the bar in the skimpiest of outfits, looked around and took off her panties and invitingly waved them around in the air. Two patrons stood up but only one walked out with her. "When she does that she always gets a client," said Pat.
Some of the women seemed too young, but Pat said they were just "small" in size.
She laid it down simply and said that R150 bought a client 15 minutes; R200 bought 30 minutes; R300 an hour; R800 to take home for an hour; and R1 300 for the whole night in one of the rooms at the bar.
She said many of the girls were with their regular clients and would normally refuse any advances from patrons as they were waiting for the "whole-nighters".
"Most of us don't mind being prostitutes. In the end we get paid, too, like everyone else who has a job."
She did not answer most of my questions until I agreed to pay R200 for her to take me into one of the back rooms. She took me through a dimly lit passage with blue walls. As we entered the passage I had to pay the R200 charge to another woman at the door, manned by two Indian men, before we could continue. She chose the first door on the left in a passage where I could only count about eight rooms.
Pat said some of the girls left their countries, without documentation, and came to South Africa solely to become prostitutes. Some bought their passports from Department of Home Affairs officials, said Pat, but they rarely left their flats during the day because for fear of being caught and deported.
She said she would pay for her family to visit her in South Africa when she had saved enough money.
When contacted for comment, the owner of the bar said, "I don't run a brothel. I run a licensed Thai escort and massage parlour. My bar is fully licensed as well.
"Those Thai women you saw were my girlfriend, my girlfriend's mother and my son's girlfriend. There are many other Thai people who visit my parlour, so I will sue you if you print that my parlour is a brothel."
- This article was originally published on page 2 of Tribune on December 24, 2006
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