Pretoria - The former Pretoria prostitute who is under strict witness protection while testifying against her alleged Nigerian “pimps” said that she had sex with up to 10 clients a night.
Afterwards, the woman was required to hand the money over to her “boss”.
The woman told the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, that the cost of sex varied between R80 and R100; R100 was for a “full house” and people who wanted “all styles”.
Probed by the prosecution what this meant, she explained “from dog style to missionary”.
Those who only paid R80 could only expect “a single style".
The woman, who cannot be identified, testified in the trial of Nigerian brothers Obioma Benjamin Abba, 32, and Chinedu Justine Obasi, 38, as well as South African citizen Nolwazi Patience Mkhonto.
The main charges against the brothers relate to human trafficking, money laundering and running a brothel. They also face drug-related charges.
The woman is facing a charge relating to assisting the men in their endeavours and subletting to them the Sunnyside flat where the activities occurred. The accused all pleaded not guilty.
Two former prostitutes, the State’s chief witnesses, said they had moved to Sunnyside due to family problems. They met the Nigerians, who offered them board and lodgings in return for being their pimps.
They were also supplied with drugs and watched at all times. They said they could never leave the flat alone and their pimps kept tabs on their clients by taking down their car registration numbers.
The first woman, who took the stand yesterday, testified that Obasi took her in and set her and the other prostitutes up in a flat in Sunnyside. He lived somewhere in Silverton, but he came to the flat each morning to fetch the previous night’s earnings.
According to her, he or his assistant also kept her in a regular supply of “rocks” - a drug. “If you take drugs you are no longer a shy person. You become free.”
She explained that she needed the drugs to get through her night’s work, which started at 6pm and often ended at 6am the next day. They mostly slept during the day. “At 6pm we get a ‘wake-up' rock. By then you are desperate for it, because you get stomach cramps. You cannot control yourself you need it. The drugs also enable us to see more than one client a night and it keeps us working.”
The woman said after each client, she received another rock to keep her going. Sometimes when business was slow during a night, she would phone Obasi or his helper to bring her a “hanging rock”, a drug to see her through the slow times. By the time she eventually went to bed, she received a “sleeper rock” which enabled her to go to sleep.
Apart from prostitution, she also had “smoking clients” . These were people who were not into sex, but simply wanted “a naked lady to sit with them while they smoked rocks”. She also took these clients to the flat and informed Obasi that she had a “smoking client”.
He then fetched the drugs and gave them to her to give to them, she said.
Asked by the prosecution what the going rate for a “smoking client” was, the woman said between R200 and R300, depending on how long they wanted to spend with the prostitute.
She said Obasi charged R50 for a small piece of rock - about the size of the tip of a finger. “Some keep on smoking and can even spend up to R10 000 a night.”
The woman told the court that she and the other prostitutes always used condoms when they worked. According to her, Obasi supplied these, which he bought on the streets, or they bought them at a pharmacy.
(Proceeding)