The woes of South Africa’s sex workers suggest that a virginal Richard Branson boobed when he chose a brothel to launch a new product, writes Jacquie Goldin
g-Duffy
British billionaire Richard Branson seemed to show a fine sense of irony – whe ther intentionally, or not – when he came out to South Africa earlier this yea r, choosing to launch his “Virgin Vodka” at “the Ranch”, an establishment wher e the staff are anything but virginal.
But, if Johannesburg’s most famous brothel got the imprimatur of one of the wo rld’s most famous businessmen, it was an isolated fillip in an otherwise woefu l year for South Africa’s sex industry. With skin magazines heading for bankru ptcy and bordellos battling for clients, the big question is whether South Afr icans are running out of cash, or libido.
“What used to be a full house of potential clients for the girls is now just a full house of people who want to dance, buy drinks for themselves and go home
for sex,” says the manager of one discotheque-cum-brothel in Hillbrow.
The manager of The Lodge – an outfit five minutes from Johannesburg Internatio nal Airport which, according to its newspaper advertisement, provides “stunnin g ladies” and “exotic shows daily” – agrees.
Although he refused to be identified, he said that the “entertainment business has been hard hit.
“It is not only the sex business that is experiencing a slump. I’ve been invol ved in entertainment for over 20 years and the last three years have been part icularly bad.”
Roxy, a freelancer – a sex worker who works privately from her home and for he rself – agrees that business has taken a nose-dive.
She works from her Randburg home and specialises in S&M – she will “do you any which way and how”, she says.
“Two years ago I was doing the cream of the crop of clients but … I’d say la tely, it’s not been the best-dressed men. Also business is slow. With the fes tive season, I thought things would pick up but people are just not so keen. I know I’m good but they are just not willing to pay for it.”
Why not?
Shane Petzer is programmes co-ordinator of the Sex Worker Education and Advoca cy Taskforce (Sweat), the only organised body representing sex workers in the country. He says the drop in the once-thriving industry is indicative of the c urrent economic situation.
“The industry is not as lucrative as people believe. With unemployment high, m ore people are entering the business, but with the bad state of the economy, S outh Africans have not got much money left over for recreation.”
Petzer argues that the law needs to be changed. Sex workers are still operatin g under Act 23 of 1957, which criminalises prostitution.
He wants it decriminalised – but not legalised. “Legalising prostitution allow s for a whole set of complications such as zoning red light areas and giving r ise to the sex police.
“If we legalise prostitution the industry will be given a special legal framew ork, setting it apart from other industries … which will continue to stigmat ise it.”
Anyway, it’s not only the overt sex-workers operating openly who are feeling t he pinch. Petzer says many sex-related outfits such as massage parlours, escor t agencies and even sex-toy shops have been closing down in Cape Town.
He attributes the downturn to a “novelty that has worn off”. The sex business, he says, has “reached a ceiling”.
The girlie magazines have been hard hit this year, with two publications, Scop e and Playboy, shutting within months of each other.
Advertisers and media planners claim the dive in the circulation of skin magaz ines should be attributed to more than the waning of their novelty. Obstacles have been placed in the way of their distribution.
Jupiter Drawing Room media director Belinda Vosloo says magazines such as Scop e, Penthouse and Hustler suffered “fundamentally because of distribution probl ems.
“There was a public outcry from certain areas of the community, resulting in o utlets refusing to stock the magazines or relegating them to the back shelves of stores where customers could not access them without having to ask the stor ekeeper.”
Meanwhile, advertising revenue slipped as circulation floundered.
Scope’s circulation for July to December 1994 was 169 052. A year later, its J uly to December 1995 circulation was 56 637.
Penthouse, for the last six months in 1994, showed a circulation of 90 101. Fo r the same period (July to December) in 1995, that figure had dropped to 75 42 7. In January to June this year, its circulation was 26 093.
Hustler for July to December 1994 sold 152 776, and for the same period in 199 5 its figures dropped to 101 947.
In July to December 1994 Playboy sold 83 951, and in July to December 1995 it sold 20 213. For 1996 (January to June), it sold only about 15 000.
Scope, the skin magazine which survived three decades of censorship and outrag e, was finally covered up for good in June. At the time, its editor David Mull any said: “The vociferous fire and brimstone fundamentalists have made it impo ssible for Scope to sell itself.”
But according to some media planners, Scope was a victim of its own brashness, and when it recast itself as a general interest magazine it no longer had a t
arget audience.
“With the advent of a new government there was a revived sense of freedom in b oth magazines and films, resulting in a general surge in consumers’ interests, ” said one media observer.
Clearly, a magazine that combined a high-minded fight against censorship with pornographic pages could appeal to an audience interested in both issues, and skin magazines took off. “However, after a high of about a year, consumers wer e no longer keen on their newfound freedom.”
The Film and Publications Bill has been passed by Senate and is awaiting ratif ication by President Nelson Mandela when it will be promulgated into law.
The Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) finds that “although it does make at tempts to reform the stringent censorship laws in the past, it still uses the XX classification, which amounts to a virtual ban, prohibiting material from b eing exhibited, distributed or possessed.
“The only thing we can do is to challenge the new law which has been enacted i n court once a case comes up,” said an FXI representative.
One brothel owner is not so interested in court challenges. She says the sex i ndustry was booming when several of the modern-day taboos were still in place. “Part of the excitement is doing things which are banned. Having to pay for s
ex was a thrill in itself, just like reading those Scopes with the stars all o ver the pictures that kept men guessing.
“With all the new freedoms in place, many people aren’t interested and the sex magazines are doing as badly as the real thing.”