Cape Town - “A stunner to tempt, tease and please you, you’ve tried the rest now try the best.”
This is the description of a “working girl” on an escort website.
She secretly sells her body as an escort to support her family, but how does being an escort make her any different from the prostitute on the street?
“I take pride in my job,” she says.
She believes she is offering a service to men who are unhappy at home and does not consider it to be cheating.
“He calls me if he wants me, I don’t call him, no strings attached and he always goes home happy,” she says.
In this Daily Voice exclusive interview with Cloe, she tells us being an escort is different as she operates from home.
“I have to support my family back home, and financially I wasn’t able to do so with the money I was earning at the time,” the 23-year-old woman from Venda explains.
“I used to make about R8 000 in two weeks using the webcam, but this was not enough and I needed more to support my family.”
Family
Her mother and seven other family members, including her own child, live in Venda – 130 000km from Cape Town in the Limpopo Province.
Her relatives depend on her income to feed them.
“This is why I decided to be an escort, but my family thinks I’m working as a personal assistant,” the young woman says.
Cloe started out in the sex industry about two years ago in Johannesburg, using a webcam sex site to service men from all over the world.
The clients paid loads of money just to see Cloe, and… well I guess one can call it “chaturbate”.
It seems like business is going well for Cloe, who received three calls from “clients” in the short time the Daily Voice was there.
Four cellphones sit on her computer stand in front of the king size bed Cloe is perched on – wearing only a gown.
Charge
“I charge R500 for a full package, and the price goes up by R200 for any extras,” Cloe says.
“Most of my clients are married men. But I also get couples.”
She calls them the “naughty clients”.
But there are dangers that she encounters.
“Most of my clients use drugs – about 70 percent of them I would say,” Cloe admits.
“Clients come to me with different types of drugs, like crystal meth [tik], cocaine and rocks.
“I’m a strong woman, that is why I can say no, if I wasn’t strong, I too would’ve been an addict.”
She recalls an encounter when one of her clients took her to a place in Cape Town, known as “Dark City”.
“A woman opened the door with drugs on a platter, I entered the house and there were about nine Nigerian men. On my way to the toilet I saw women in the rooms high on drugs, I just wanted to get out,” she says.
Lured
Cloe says back in Joburg she knew of women who had been lured into the country with promises of work but are instead forced to do drugs and sell their bodies to men.
“So far I only saw Nigerian men prostituting these women,” Cloe admits.
She says friends of hers use drugs because, according to them, it makes their jobs easier.
“They don’t think as much, and it makes them more flexible,” she says.
Cloe mostly works from her home, and as a precaution she avoids going to clients’ houses or hotels.
She shares a house with a man, who according to her is at home most of the time, but stays out of sight – but is there in case anything goes wrong.
She describes her work as safer and cleaner than the prostitutes on the streets.
“You never know what diseases they might have, and they are always in danger, most of them only do it to support their drug habit and that is why they charge less,” she says, adding that she will never work on the streets.
Same game but different name
It could easily become very confusing because even though what they offer is basically the same, escorts or call girls, can be distinguished as something completely different to your normal street prostitutes.
Escort services generally restrict their hires to attractive, personable women without visible drug problems. Men who use escort services tend to be far more orderly clients, and often enlist escorts for actual escorting services, such as for dinner and drinks – in addition to sex.
When we asked Sex Workers Education Advocacy Taskforce what they thought about escorts and escort agencies, this is the reply...
“Yes, this is the most ideal business set up for a sex worker because she works in the comfort and safety of her own home, and does not need to share her earnings with a pimp or brothel owner. Actually, when sex work was decriminalised in New Zealand there was a shift from street-based sex work to indoor, we anticipate the same shift will take place in South Africa when sex work is decriminalised.
“We are in the age of internet technology, so it is not surprising that sex workers are now moving towards advertising their services online, it is also much safer than standing on a street corner late at night.
“Sex workers cannot openly advertise their services, out of fear of prosecution. That’s why they have had to work under the pretense of escort agencies. Primarily the service offered is companionship, but should the sex worker and client agree to more, then this is negotiated.” - Daily Voice