The club operator pays for their travel
and accommodation and sorts out all visas and permits required
to work in South Africa.
The cost?
R100 000.00!
Then, instead of the club paying them, the
girls actually have to pay the club.
In most of these clubs, the girls have to pay the owners
an extravagant and set nightly or monthly fee (+- R12k pm),
plus a major percentage of their earnings.
On top of that, the girls are subjected
to heavy fines for ridiculous things.
Like, your nails are not varnished properly tonight. R150.
Your hair was not blow-dried. Another R250.
You spent five minutes too long with a client without getting
him to pay for a lap dance. R350.
The girls also have to pay back
the R100k over the two years and they have to hand
their passports over to a company representative
when they arrive here.
The girls make their money from
private dances, but this is nowhere near enough
to pay the club.
They therefore have no choice but
to engage in 'extras' to cover their debts.
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Tatiana Malachi from the Republic of Moldavia
was having none of that.
When she arrived in South Africa to work for the Cape Dance
Academy International (sic) and House of Rasputin Properties,
it did not take her long to realise the truth.
A couple of months into her contract, Tatiana
decided that she wanted out.
But her employer refused to hand back her passport until
she had paid back the debt.
Tatiana then enlisted the help of the Consul
General of Russia, who issued her with an emergency passport,
but her employer had her arrested on the day she was supposed
to leave South Africa.
She subsequently spent 16 days in Polsmoor prison.
This was in terms of an order granted by
the Cape Town Magistrate's Court on the grounds that money
was owed and she might flee without paying it.
But Tatiana challenged the procedure of
arrest of a person suspected of being about to flee, contending
that it was unconstitutional and violated her rights, and
this week, the constitutional court upheld a ruling by the
Cape High Court that the sections of the law relied on were
constitutionally invalid, and confirmed that court's order
that those two sections of the act be struck down.
The ruling applies to all pending cases.
In his ruling, Judge Mogoeng wa Mogoeng
also ordered the release from prison of anyone being held
because of an unpaid debt, adding that this was not justifiable
in an open and democratic society.
Yay Tatiana!
