6 Sex Workers Murdered in Cape Town

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6 sex workers were found murdered in a massgae parlor/brothel in Cape Town, SA, yesterday. The brothel was located in Sea Point. Link to story:

http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,6119,2-7-1442_1309227,00.html

In case this link is difficult to reach, here's the text:

 

 

 

 

Scenes of horror in massage parlour

20/01/2003 14:40 - (SA)

Cape Town - Scenes of utter horror greeted journalists on Monday when they were finally allowed to enter a house in Sea Point where six men were found tied up and shot dead. Their throats had also been slit.

 

A seventh victim of the gruesome early-morning attack at the well-known Sea Point gay massage parlour, frequented by men, died in Groote Schuur Hospital.

 

Two others were in the hospital's intensive-care unit while another man was admitted to Somerset Hospital. He was due to be transferred to Groote Schuur.

 

About seven hours after the massacre, journalists were allowed into the main bedroom of the white, red tiled house, one at a time and only for a few seconds.

 

From the outside, the house, with its picket fence, shrubs and flowers, is partly hidden from the road and appears neat and tidy. It gives no clue as to what transpired inside.

 

Teddy bears lying on the floor

 

The main bedroom was dark and dingy. Heavy curtains covered the windows and there was blood everywhere.

 

The room contained six bunk beds - apparently for guests wanting to spend the night.

 

The place appeared to have been ransacked with items of clothing and teddy bears lying on the floor.

 

Inside the house, there were television sets and video cassette recorders, but police did not divulge what was on the tapes.

 

There were also cubicles inside the house with massage tables and pornographic photographs of men stuck to the walls.

 

'Where's Eric?'

 

About 09:30, a woman, apparently the domestic worker, arrived at the house and immediately started crying uncontrollably. She cried out: "Where's Eric, where's Eric", as she was comforted by police.

 

It could not be immediately ascertained, but Eric is believed to have owned or managed the massage parlour.

 

The woman was later taken away by police.

 

Captain Etienne Terblanche, who was at the house, said the three survivors were in a serious condition.

 

Five bodies had been found inside the main bedroom, all tied up together and all shot close range. Some of them had their throats slit. Another body was found in an adjacent bedroom.

 

Terblanche said three injured people were found inside the house with similar injuries.

 

Victims found bleeding and screaming

 

A fourth injured man escaped from the house and stumbled into a nearby service station. A petrol attendant said the man was able to say only where the bloodbath had taken place before he collapsed.

 

Another police source said the injured were found crawling around the house, bleeding and screaming.

 

Terblanche said police were questioning neighbours and people living in the immediate vicinity as well as street children... everyone who could be questioned as witnesses.

 

A statement had also been taken from a client who arrived at the house shortly after 04:00.

 

Terblanche confirmed the house was used as a gay massage parlour. They had had dealings in the past, after complaints from some neighbours.

 

Scope of investigation 'very wide'

 

Terblanche did not want to speculate about whether the killing was related to a gay protection racket or whether drug dealers were involved.

 

All he would say was that police were investigating all avenues.

 

"The scope of our investigation is very wide at the moment. We are looking at all possibilities."

 

Asked whether there could be a link to attacks on other gay clubs, Terblanche again said all possibilities would be investigated.

 

He said it might be difficult to identify the victims as men who frequented such places usually used aliases.

 

Safety and security MEC Leonard Ramatlakane who was at the house early on Monday said he was shocked that people could be massacred in that way.

 

Ramatlakane said an integrated police task team had been put together to investigate the massacre which looked like "organised crime was behind this."

 

The Lesbian and Gay Equality Project said in a statement that it had learnt with shock about the massacre.

 

The organisation's director, Evert Knoesen, said indications were that the murders could be a hate crime.

 

Sex workers vulnerable

 

"People who work in the sex service industry are particularly vulnerable (to violence) as they operate outside the parameters of formal society," said Knoesen.

 

He said crimes against "these people" were often not investigated as thoroughly as they could be.

 

"Further, we are concerned that this could be an instance of a hate crime perpetrated against gay men as an identified minority.

 

"We have been concerned about threats issued by various fringe groups in society in recent months that indicated an intention to perpetrate acts of violence against lesbian and gay people," said Knoesen.

 

He called on the national commissioner of police and the commissioner of police in the Western Cape to appoint a special investigation team to urgently investigate the mass murder and to spare no effort in apprehending the perpetrators of these crimes.

 

The Equality Project conveyed its sympathies to those who had lost family and friends and wished the injured a speedy recovery.

 

Flat owner woken by shots

 

An Oliver Court flat-owner, who declined to be identified, said he had been woken by shots and had seen a man with a gaping wound to his neck, running up Oliver Street to a service station in Main Road.

 

Police had been called.

 

The flat-owner said 15 police vehicles and four ambulances had arrived at the house shortly after 04:00. All roads leading to Graham Road were immediately sealed off.

 

'Nothing surprises you anymore

 

Another elderly couple, out from the United Kingdom to escape the British winter said they had heard the shots from their flat in Rhona Court.

 

"We came here from England to escape the weather and this is what happens," said the husband, who did not wish to be named.

 

"At the age of 77, you've seen quite enough so nothing surprises you anymore," they said.

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A 7th sex worker has now died. Same link as above

 

http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,6119,2-7-1442_1309198,00.html

 

Massage massacre: 7th man dies

20/01/2003 12:24 - (SA)

Cape Town - Another victim of the gruesome early-Monday attack at a massage parlour in Sea Point, Cape Town, has died in hospital, bringing the death toll to seven.

 

The bodies of six men were found at a house in Graham Road, while four seriously injured men were admitted to two hospitals in Cape Town.

 

Philippa Johnson of Groote Schuur Hospital said three of the injured were admitted on Monday morning, and one had died at 08:00.

 

"One has died and the remaining two are in a critical condition in the ICU," she said.

 

Somerset Hospital medical superintendent Dr Ria Kirsten said a young man had been admitted there, but would be transferred to Groote Schuur later in the day.

 

"He is in a serious, but stable, condition."

 

Captain Etienne Terblanche said one of the four injured men was seen by neighbours running out of the house with wounds to his neck and head to a service station in nearby Main Road.

 

The six men who were killed in the massage parlour had all been tied up and shot in the head at close range. Their throats had also been slit.

 

Police, who rushed to the parlour at 7 Graham Road in Sea Point after neighbours notified them of shots fired about 04:30, described the scene that greeted them when they arrived as "horrific".

 

Injured were crawling around

 

Terblanche said there was "an incredible amount of blood about" and it was difficult to determine the exact wounds.

 

"When we arrived, the injured were crawling around on the floor," he said.

 

Terblanche said the house was rented out and was run as a massage parlour, apparently for gay men.

 

Each bedroom in the house served as a massage suite and the walls were decorated with graphic images. Bondage equipment was also found in the house.

 

There are signs on the front of the house with the words "No cheques accepted".

 

The police are not yet certain whether the seven dead were clients or masseurs.

 

The road was cordoned off at both ends on Monday morning, and there was a large police presence at No 7.

 

Cops mum on drug-dealer link

 

Faced with a barrage of speculative questions from reporters about possible links between the massacre and drug dealers and protection rackets, Terblanche would not be drawn on the leads police were following.

 

"At this stage, we are investigating all possibilities. It is obviously a very early stage of the investigation. We are questioning people and putting the puzzle together," he said.

 

Asked if the shootings were all execution-style in the back of the head, Terblanche said: "Let's not go into graphic detail."

 

Terblanche said police did not know if there were any other people in the house at the time of the attack, besides those who were killed and wounded.

 

Police, trying to establish who worked at the premises, took a statement from a client who arrived at the house shortly after the shooting.

[BgMstr4u]

I am just sick at heart about this. I love South Africa, I love Cape Town, I love the gay scene there, and I love the many sex workers I have met there. I am devastated.

 

My suspicion is that this is not drug related at all. A story in The Scotsman online about this identified the murderers as a group of 4 white men. There is an active Afrikaner movement against the government which acts through terrorist cells, very much like Al Qaeda, only not as smart. It sounds to me like an Afrikaner terrorist cell of the sort the government broke up in Gauteng (Johannesburg) last fall.

 

These people hate the new regime and everything it stands for. One of the things the new constitution of SA explicitly guarantees is equality for gay and lesbian people -- perhaps the first constitution in the world which does so. My first intuition is that this is an attack on one of the most spectacular success stories of the new South Africa -- making Cape Town and SA generally into a world-class tourist destination, for gay people as well as for others. Cape Town is one of the finest cities in the world for gay people. This act will inevitably make gay people think twice about going there.

 

My second intuition -- if the above proves not correct -- is gang related. Criminal gangs are a huge problem in SA. as is crime in general. The police are incredibly low on the public list -- hated by black Africans for their part in apartheid, hated now by many whites because the various forces have become patronage networks for African political leaders. The police are badly led, hugely underpaid, inefficient to the point of irrelevance, and vastly corrupt. No one can depend on public safety officials in SA. So security is a very big industry -- virtually everyone in the middle class or up, black as well as white, has private security. There are huge and very effective criminal networks preying on every conceivable victim. Thousands of cars are stolen at gunpoint every year at stop signs and on highways. People expect their houses to be broken into. No one stays out alone after dark, and one always takes a cab for even a few blocks at night. Why this place didn't have effective security is a mystery to me.

 

It is also a cautionary tale about the danger sex workers are in in many places of the world. I have known some wonderful young men in SA, and I pray that they are not among those killed. I also pray (and this is a real prayer, to the God of justice) that those killed will be avenged somehow, and that those who have done this will be brought to account, tried, and punished with the full severity of the law.

[ad rian]

>My first

>intuition is that this is an attack on one of the most

>spectacular success stories of the new South Africa -- making

>Cape Town and SA generally into a world-class tourist

>destination, for gay people as well as for others. Cape Town

>is one of the finest cities in the world for gay people.

....

>My second intuition -- if the above proves not correct -- is

>gang related. Criminal gangs are a huge problem in SA. as is

>crime in general.

 

There is a link between these two paragraphs. Cape Town is nice. It is by far the most "westernized" of South African cities post-apartheid, hence its popularity as a tourist and convention destination. However, it is precisely the fact that this most liberal of South African cities before the fall of apartheid, has become the least racially-transformed in terms ob business, government and police that it is likely to become increasingly common for random acts of violence to occur as well as targeted acts of violence against particular groups, gays included. It is a pity, I agree, but it is predictable, and each time folks praise Cape Town in relation to the rest of RSA, you only make them less resistant to joining the success of the rainbow nation. In fact, in the Western Cape if you are familiar with South Africa, the most reactionary forces - the most resistant to change - are not the Afrikaners, but rather the English-speaking population.

 

After them, there is an increasingly active Moslem Indian/Mixed Race minority that is very conservative and has been known for vigilantism in relation to drugs. Given that most of the sex workers in Cape Town from what I have seen come from that community, it would not surprise me if vigilantism targeted at those who exploit those boys would occur. It is too early to tell, and it would be a pity if it ocurred, but that is why people who want to use sex workers while abroad should not engage in exploitative practices there that you would not do at home.

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Well, our one-trick pony has weighed in once again with his preachy bit about foreign visitors exploiting escorts abroad (he doesn't, of course, because as a denizen of Planet Plaza Athenée he's constitutionally incapable of paying less than triple the New York price whenever he uses a foreign escort). Of course, it's totally irrelevant, because there doesn't seem to be any hint of that being an issue in this heinous crime. The articles that have been published so far make it sound like it's a strictly local problem, probably having to do with debts to local drug dealers and/or the criminal protection rackets. South Africa, unfortunately, has a rampant crime problem, and so far has had little success in eliminating the reign of lawlessness. My guess is that this particular disgusting crime is an anomalous situation, but it's a good cautionary tale and one that prospective visitors to South Africa should keep in mind. Caution and common sense are always good companions on trips to poor countries, and can help avoid many problems. Of course, they probably wouldn't have prevented an attack like the massacre in Cape Town, but they certainly can help you stay out of the more common, garden-variety crimes tourists experience.

[ad rian]

>The articles that have been published so far make it sound

>like it's a strictly local problem, probably having to do with

>debts to local drug dealers and/or the criminal protection

>rackets. South Africa, unfortunately, has a rampant crime

>problem, and so far has had little success in eliminating the

>reign of lawlessness.

 

My post as with the original both said clearly that the facts were unclear at the time of writing. They are still unclear, but from what I have read this does not bear the marks of the kind of random crime that is that is more common in Joburg than Cape Town. As of now, the best guess is that it is a vengeance crime, but nobody knows for certain yet.

 

All I wanted to do was to set the record straight about Cape Town. I never said or implied that foreigners were involved in this crime. I just pointed out - what anyone who knows anything about South Africa knows - that there is a Muslim population that has been targeting drug dealers, and may well now turn to other areas of exploitative exploitation. My advice not to exploit when you travel seems to make you uncomfortable. OK, go ahead and exploit if you must, but don't complain if you get hurt, that's all I ask.

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Here's an article from a gay perspective, the web site of the Lesbian & Gay Equality Project, with more information on those being sought:

http://www.equality.org.za/news/2003/01/20mass.htm

 

"Terblanche said one of the suspects had a tattoo of a curled-up snake on his upper left arm, and the words "fast gun" tattooed on his right wrist. His hair was reddish, probably bleached, and he wore a goatee beard.

The second suspect was a thin man with a fair complexion who had a habit of sniffing.

The third suspect was tall and well-built with a shaven head and was possibly a body builder while the fourth was also described as well-built.

"All these suspects were seen driving a white three series BMW," Terblanche said."

 

The physical details would seem to be more white than colored, which is why I still suspect an Afrikaner terror cell, although the sniffing could be a cocaine thing.

[ad rian]

>The physical details would seem to be more white than colored,

>which is why I still suspect an Afrikaner terror cell,

>although the sniffing could be a cocaine thing.

 

That's unlikely. The Afrikanner terror cells tend to target the symbols of Black (African) power, and the Western Cape is the least Black, and least Black-controlled part of South Africa. That's not to say they like Gays or mixed-race "coloreds", but tht's not their top priority. As the article pointed out, the police tend to think this is a drug-related organized crime vengeance story. (If not that, I think some militant Muslim targeting of a sex and drug gang is the most likely guess.) See also below:

 

Police Hunt Two Male Prostitues In Gay Massage Parlour Killings

Gay.com UK

Wednesday 22 January, 2003 11:56

 

PROMOTION

Police are said to be hunting two male prostitutes in their investigation into the gay massage parlour shootings in Cape Town, South Africa, this week which they believe were drug related.

 

10 men were tied up and shot during the attack on the Sizzlers massage parlour early on Monday in the city's Sea Point suburb. Some of the victims had their throats slit with a carpet knife.

 

"We suspect that this was a revenge attack and that the motive could possibly be related to drugs," police said in a statement on Tuesday.

 

Six victims were found dead in the well known gay brothel. Another two men died later in hospital. Two others are still fighting for their lives.

 

Police said were said to be hunting for four men seen by witnesses driving away from the house in a white BMW. The gunmen are suspected members of the Fast Guns gang in Johannesburg, police said.

 

Police believe the attack might have been targeted at two male prostitutes who went by the name Stephen and Maruan. They were not there at the time of the killing.

 

They appealed to the public for help in finding Stephen and Maruan.

 

http://uk.gay.com/headlines/3507

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The assailants are being tied to a Johannesburg gang, the Fast Guns gang, which has apparently been hired to work in Cape Town to throw investigators looking for local connections off. The police are now more strongly speculating that the motive was drugs or protection.

 

Interestingly, the owner of the brothel was well-known as having a strick non-drug policy toward his employees, and called in the police from time to time to enforce it. My imagination about this case now runs in the direction of money, rather than Afrikaner terror. Sounds possible that the owner refused to let the drug folks to muscle in, or refused to pay protection to them, and the enforcers were called in.

 

If so, two lessons: 1) the profound effect organized crime is having in a South Africa without an effective police establishment; 2) the incredible danger sex workers and gay sex industry entrepreneurs are in when there is serious money to be made and someone else wants a piece of your action.

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I intended to provide this link to the current Lesbian & Gay Equality project article:

http://www.equality.org.za/news/2003/01/21gauhit.htm

This provides more information about the gang, and about the brother owner.

[ad rian]

>If so, two lessons: 1) the profound effect organized crime is

>having in a South Africa without an effective police

>establishment;

 

If you like South Africa as much as you claim, you should really be careful to avoid perpetuating these urban myths. Joburg has its problems, but I have never had a problem there, and in fact feel much safer there than in similar parts of NYC or D.C. It's important to compare apples with apples and oranges with oranges. Even so, outside of the "townships" around Joburg, "organized" crime is not the problem, rather the poblem tends to be more random. And the "organized" crime is not Godfather/Goodfellas stuff, it tends to be around the local taxis of sorts that most tourists would not use. Please let's not blow this out of proportion!