JUSTIN ARENSTEIN & SAKHILE MOKOENA, Nelspruit | Tuesday
MPUMALANGA’S sleepy capital Nelspruit intends creating a red light district as part of an initiative to regulate the region’s growing sex trade.
Council representative Delia Oosthuizen confirmed that all six escort agencies in the city had been ordered to immediately move their operations into the central business district.
The agencies currently operated from converted houses in Nelspruit’s leafy suburbs.
“This is against our licensing guidelines. Escort agencies are supposed to operate from the central business district so that we can ensure that all health and other standards are met,” said Oosthuizen.
The initiative has evoked knee-jerk opposition from escort agencies, but all confidentially confirm they would expand their operations if forced to move into town.
“We currently only offer escort services, but would look at opening a bar with a strip show or lap and table dancing if we were forced to move into town,” said one agency owner.
“We’ve tried this before, but we have a conservative council and were refused permission. If they forced us into town they couldn’t really object could they?”
Agency owners are reluctant to be publicly named, however, to prevent possible persecution during a proposed re-licensing process.
The agencies are all less than three years old and owe their existence to Nelspruit’s rapid growth from a small farm town in 1994 into Mpumalanga’s commercial and government centre.
The six registered agencies currently employ 50 escorts and an unspecified number of drivers, bouncers, cleaners and other support staff.
There are also scores of pavement prostitutes in the CBD, catering to a town notorious for a limited nightlife.
“We aren’t forcing them to create a redlight district, but we can’t prevent them from all opening up in the same area,” said Oosthuizen.
Nelspruit’s largest escort agency, Le Club, already offers patrons a private bar, erotic entertainment such as strip shows and lap dancing, and pool tables.
All five other agencies expressed interest in similar services.
“Prostitution will probably be legalised soon, so why should the council harass us if we ensure that our operations are clean and that safe-sex standards are maintained. It’s better than a life on the streets, and takes the crime out of the world’s oldest profession,” said the agency owner. – African Eye News Service