Marianne Merten
A top Cape gang leader and alleged child prostitution kingpin has been arrested on several charges of child prostitution, abduction, rape and assault.
Amien Andrews, leader of the Hol Boys gang, will remain in jail until at least April, when he will bring a bail application before the Cape Town Regional Court. The trial was postponed last week to give Andrews an opportunity to raise funds for his defence as all his bank accounts have been frozen.
For years, girls often as young as 14 have worked as prostitutes at his brothel, Amien and the Girls, in the working class area of Salt River or along Main Road – the well known commercial sex strip from Sea Point on the one side of the peninsula to Plumstead on the other.
On January 4, Cape Town detectives raided the brothel after a tip-off. Although two key state witnesses have been in a protection programme since then, their relatives have been intimidated by Hol Boy gangsters.
The brothel is just off the Main Road. Brightly painted murals, including a semi-naked woman, clearly identify the cream-coloured house. Over the heavily fortified door a small sign reads, ”Amien and the Girls”.
One NGO field worker, who wants to remain anonymous for fear of an attack, says Andrews entices young girls with promises of money, clothes and jewellery. Others are kidnapped. His operation is highly organised and often violent.
As the gang boss he has the right to ”break in a virgin”. If the girl refuses, she is gang-raped and beaten, the field worker says.
There is a strict hierarchy. A head girl is in charge of the others and collects the money from the street prostitutes. A taxi drops them off and collects them every night. They always work in pairs on one street corner, with two gang members across the road to keep an eye on them.
The word on the street is that ”you can always tell one of Amien’s girls” – well dressed with lots of jewellery.
At the brothel, customers pay up to R300 straight to Andrews. A 13-year-old girl is the door guard. Alcohol is also sold at the house.
Karin Koen, a researcher for another NGO, Molo Songololo, says Andrews’s arrest is just the tip of the iceberg. Child prostitutes as young as 12 are an increasingly common sight, Koen says.
”These children have very little chance of escaping from being prostituted as pimps and gangs use drugs, violence and intimidation to control them,” says a Molo Songololo proposal for a children’s emergency centre.
On Saturday several NGOs will discuss establishing a centre for the prevention of commercial sexual exploitation of children.
Meanwhile, Andrews will later this year also stand trial for allegedly kidnapping three teenage girls from the Golden Acre mall in the Cape Town CBD in 1997. The girls were allegedly brought to the brothel and gang-raped before managing to escape days later.