IT ’ S SEX BUSINESS AS USUAL

Prostitutes ply trade near hospital treating Madiba

SEX workers are plying their trade not far from the Pretoria hospital where former president Nelson Mandela is receiving treatment for a recurring lung infection.

Some of the flesh peddlers interviewed by Sowetan said the heightened security in the area – Acardia – had not had an impact on their business. Scores of women in miniskirts and sexy wear prowl the corner of Leyds and Stanza Bopape streets as early as 4pm to ply their trade.

The intersection is just a street away from MediClinic Heart Hospital where Mandela has been for the past month.

The street where the hospital is situated is crawling with police, metro police officers, journalists and scores of well-wishers.

However, just a few hundred metres away, Sowetan observed more than 20 sex workers lined up along busy Pretorius Street soliciting business from passing motorists and pedestrians.

The fact that Mandela is hospitalised within walking distance did not seem to trouble the scantily dressed sex workers.

“The police are doing their job on the other side and so are we,” said a woman wearing a T-shirt and fishnet leggings, revealing chubby thighs.

“We see a lot of them (police) these days but they do not interfere with our business because we do not bother them,” said a sex worker.

“We thought the police were going to be a problem for us when we heard that they were guarding the hospital but they never bother us.”

There were more scantily dressed women near the Capital Inn bar in Stanza Bopape Street than the ones in Pretorius Street.

“Look, we work decently here. We do not raise our clothes when we see men. They come to us. We sit in the bar and men make their choice,” said another woman, wearing a black miniskirt and a boob tube.

“We walk up and down the street when the bar is not busy. I don’t see why the police should bother us because they are here to look after Mandela, not us,” she said.

However, some of the sex workers inside the seedy Capital Inn bar did not take kindly to being asked about their business.

“You are blocking the view of my clients with your jacket,” said one of the sex workers when approached.

A man who is allegedly the club’s manager said it was business as usual and that they had not been bothered by the police or the media around the hospital.

“The hospital is on the other side. We have not had any problems with the police or anybody,” he said.