Mungo Soggot
PLANNING some cosmetic surgery, but you=20 don’t want anyone to know about it? Why not=20 throw in a trip to South Africa, visit the=20 Kruger Park and see the fairest Cape – all=20 for half what you would pay in Europe?
This is the pitch Carrie Globisch, a=20 beautician, plans to make when she opens=20 her business in Frankfurt in March.=20 Globisch has a scheme to shuttle Germans to=20 South Africa for plastic surgery – anything=20 from a breast reduction to a penis=20 extension. The patients will remain here=20 for two weeks, recuperate, see the sights=20 and then fly home. All their friends in=20 Germany have to know is that they had a=20 great holiday.
For some time now, foreigners have been=20 streaming into South Africa for dental and=20 medical treatment, cashing in on the high=20 quality of care and the frail rand.
But Globisch is convinced there is room for=20 commercialisation. She plans to fly=20 hundreds of Germans here a year and is=20 ready to expand into other European=20 countries. She is currently in South Africa=20 finalising deals with guest houses, hotels,=20 and airlines. Cape-bound patients will have=20 the option of recuperating on a wine farm=20 in Stellenbosch, while those who go under=20 the knife in Johannesburg will be able to=20 heal in the Kruger Park.
A straight face-lift would cost about R20=20 000 in South Africa and R70 000 in Germany=20 – Globisch offering a round-trip package=20 for about R40 000 and she will offer=20 additional post-operative care at her=20 clinic in Frankfurt.
Globisch plans to launch the scheme in=20 March at a major trade fair in D=FCsseldorf.=20 She will be accompanied by Hennie Roos, a=20 Johannesburg plastic surgeon who pioneered=20 a unique penis thickening process, and a=20 breast operation which leaves minimal=20 scars. He also performs a penis elongation=20 operation first conducted by a Chinese=20 doctor notably named Dr Dao Chao Long.
Roos, who will tend to many of Globisch’s=20 clients, has performed more than 500 penis=20 operations and regularly travels abroad to=20 lecture and perform his operations.=20
Roos says the most popular operations among=20 foreigners are liposuction, penis=20 enlargement and face lifting – relatively=20 simple procedures which require only a=20 couple of weeks` recuperation. He agrees a=20 key attraction is the anonymity of being=20 operated on in South Africa. “Overseas they=20 are very exposed. They can come here first=20 class and get a holiday and the operation=20 for less than the cost in Germany.”=20
And to boot, he says, the standard of=20 plastic surgery in South Africa is often=20 higher than in Europe.