Sex pest preys on women job-seekers
A PROPERTY company has threatened to take legal action against a sex pest who uses its company name to lure desperate female job-seekers with employment in exchange for sexual favours.
A man who claims to be Riaan Smith and an employee at Brickfield Properties in Cape Town visited Gumtree and targeted young women advertising themselves to get employment.
Once he gets their attention, the sex pest would then promise to give them R11 000 a month, groceries and a laptop in exchange for sexual favours.
A woman, 23, from Uitenhage, Eastern Cape, said she received a WhatsApp message from “Riaan Smith” on Sunday asking if she was looking for employment.
“He offered me a position as a property manager and said his company was based in Port Elizabeth. I asked when I could start working and he said Tuesday,” she said.
The woman then asked how to get to the offices but she was told that she’ll only get the job if she complies with his employment agreement.
He said she would receive R11 000 a month, and double that amount as a bonus on her birthday, as well as a laptop, a cellphone contract and a grocery shopping voucher worth R3 000.
“But only if you agree to have sex with me once every two months but we use condoms okay,” said the message.
He added he would give her an extra R2 000 for personal use when she signed the contract .
“There are no jobs these days so if you’re a woman, you have to compromise somehow to get a good job offer.
“No one will ever know about our sex deal. Even your husband. But we will start to have sex end of April after your second salary,” the text from the man continued.
The woman immediately blocked the number after receiving the messages.
“I thought it was a legit job offer and I was ready to Google the company and go to the offices,” she said. “He also asked me how old I am and where I live in Uitenhage.”
Sisanda Mabona-Mlisana, who created the job-seekers page on Facebook which the man had frequented, said she was appalled.
“I’m utterly disgusted by him. He sees women as objects who are inadequate to find employment other than by sleeping with someone. And to think that there are more Riaans out there who take advantage of unemployed and vulnerable women also makes me wonder.”
Jonker Devos, the owner of Brickfield Properties, said the man did not work for his company and had never worked for him.
“There are a couple of people who have called me and threatened that they were going to come to our office. I think maybe 20 people have called me so far,” Devos said. He added that the company would go through legal channels to try to find the culprit.
The screen-grabs of the conversation were posted on Facebook, where multiple women commented, saying they received the same message with different numbers and different names.