Teazers 'importing' strippers
2005-01-31 15:47
Johannesburg - The owner of Teazers nightclub said on Monday he was forced to recruit foreign strippers to keep a full staff compliment because of the poor standard of many local hopefuls.
"I advertise ... extensively ..." Lolly Jackson, owner of the Teazers adult entertainment clubs told Sapa.
"They come in torn tracksuits, they have more holes in their bodies (piercings) than an 18 wheeler truck - heaven help them if they walk past a magnet."
He said the foreign women "come to work dressed like absolute ladies".
"Even at the Moulin Rouge in Paris you have to pass a quality test. I am in the entertainment industry.
"Some local girls come in dressed as though they have been dragged through the Nile backwards.
"But the foreign girls, they are very stylish, more professional."
Permission from home affairs
Jackson caused a stir on Monday when he was reported in The Star as saying that he was recruiting foreign women because many South African strippers used drugs, or sold sex on the side, which brought unwanted attention from the police.
He had secured permission from the department of home affairs to interview a number of foreign women on the grounds that he could not recruit suitable employees locally.
He said women who were attracted to stripping were using it to escape debt or abuse and he encouraged them to move on when they were back on their feet.
He said the foreign women he employed worked, made their money, and left.
Drugs
"But some of the local women spend their money on drugs or on some bum who doesn't work," Jackson explained.
"After two years she's still here and she's got nothing to show for her work because she's schnarfed it all up her nose and Wesbank has taken the car.
"I've got some women who've been around for six years. Of course I want new faces because for the clients, seeing the same face all the time is like being married for 40 years," Jackson said.
"Don't get me wrong, I have 300 local girls and only about 20 foreign girls," he said, "and the majority of them are very good".
He said that the foreign women's sense of style was rubbing off onto the local women.
'Proudly local'
Jackson's sentiment is, however, not shared by everybody in the industry.
"We are proudly local," said the receptionist at a well-known Johannesburg club.
Paula de Pinho of Johannesburg's Executive Entertainment, an agency which finds work for about 40 strippers on its books said: "I think that's a load of bullshit."
"It's totally unfair on South African girls. Where are they going to go to now? They may be forced into prostitution which is not legal and it's not fair."
De Pinho said that the 40 women on her books were all registered with the SA Revenue Services and "don't do sex".
"Yes, there is prostitution. If the girls are doing extras in the clubs the owners should be monitoring it.
"Most of it is paid for with credit cards so they can tell that way what's going on."
- SAPA