Aaron Nicodemus
When clients at The Ranch eat lunch, they can watch one of two large-screen televisions. On Monday afternoon, one shows close-up shots of women’s genitalia and breasts. The other shows Parliament in action.
It’s an odd juxtaposition, one that spawns a litany of ”who’s being screwed” jokes over honey chicken and ice cream.
But that’s part of what makes The Ranch, billed as ”the largest brothel in Africa,” both intriguing and disturbing.
The atmosphere inside is reminiscent of a quaint English pub. But it is also an eye- opener to the reality that women of every shape, colour, race and creed are paid handsomely to exploit themselves.
The Ranch, in Rivonia, features 75 beautiful sex workers. A R250 entrance fee gets you through the metal detector and electronic door. Sex will cost more, depending on whether a client merely wants sex in a room (R400) or wants sex in combination with a frolic in the spa (R500).
Sex workers can earn up to R70 000 a month. The Ranch does not provide them with health care, and gives cursory information on sexually transmitted diseases. The sex workers have to buy their own condoms.
”A lot of women come into this business to pay off debts,” says The Ranch’s owner, Andrew Phillips. ”After a few days, she’s paid off her debts. Then she wonders if it was all worth it.” That’s when the ”whorehouse blues” often hit, he says.
Kimberly, a beautiful 22-year-old black woman from Mauritius, has been working at The Ranch for four months. She earns about R35 000 a month, and visits a doctor every month. She uses two condoms with every client, ”just in case one breaks. I tell them it’s your life, it’s my life, we use a condom.” Kimberly says she would turn away a client if he didn’t want to use a condom, but isn’t sure every woman at The Ranch would do the same.
Kimberly tried modelling before coming to The Ranch, but the pay was too low. ”You get addicted to nice things, so you end up doing something like this for the rest of your life if you’re not careful,” she says.
She follows some basic rules. No kissing. No licking. No old guys (over 45). Weird stuff is OK as long as it isn’t painful. She says sex with seven, eight, nine men a night means nothing to her. Only sex with her boyfriend matters.
”My brother and dad would shoot me if they knew what I was doing,” says Kimberly, who hopes to return to school soon to finish her degree in computers. ”When you sit back and think about it, all the girls feel guilty. One of these days, I’ll repent.”
The Ranch provides health counselling to all its women, in the form of Elna McIntosh and her nursing staff from Disa Health Care in Sandton. McIntosh and her staff discuss in graphic terms the threat of diseases like HIV/Aids. She runs weekly sessions for sex workers at The Ranch.
”At the end of the day, these women are selling their souls,” McIntosh said. ”We try and provide them at least with information on how to protect themselves.”
McIntosh lead an American delegation of educators who were visiting South African sex workers and their workplaces. The tour of The Ranch, called the ”Safer Sex project with Sex workers,” was on their itinerary.
One of the tour’s members, Professor Judith Baer of Texas, gave a presentation on feminism and reproductive rights in The Ranch’s strip bar, ”The Titty Twister”. The bar was empty of strippers at the time, unless McIntosh’s impromptu pole-straddle along the catwalk counts.
Kimberly says she hasn’t heard of any sex worker at The Ranch getting a sexually transmitted disease. ”You have to take care of your body. It’s not an easy job,” she says. ”It’s cool, they keep the drugs out of here. It’s a clean place.”
It’s also a careful place. The Ranch uses its elaborate computer system to protect itself – and its workers – from criminal prosecution. In order to gain admittance to The Ranch, a client has to put money on an electronic Ranch Card. When a client finds a woman to his liking, they head back to the rooms.
The rooms at The Ranch are oddly antiseptic. The hospital-like beds are high off the floor, with thin sheets that are removed after each visit. Each room has bright lighting and a lot of mirrors. There’s also a small box welded to the wall where the client can safely store his valuables.
The sex worker places the card into a slot in the wall, and punches numbers into a keyboard. Money from the client’s account is transferred to hers. The money can be paid out in a lump sum at the end of the week, month, or at the end of every shift. Only after this cashless transaction is complete does the sex begin.
There are more protections. Each employee has to pay a R450 fee for each six-hour shift that she works, totaling about R12 000 a month. Since the men also pay an entrance fee, legally The Ranch is a social club, where men and women come to meet each other.
What all this high-tech gadgetry does is short-circuit the typical police sting, which involves tape recorders and marked bills.