5 years later, gay escort industry busy

By Helen Bamford

Even by South African standards, the Sizzlers massacre on January 20, 2003 was shocking.

Nine men were slaughtered in one night.

They were bound, their throats slit and then shot in the head before being left in pools of blood in the white Sea Point house with matching picket fence.
Could it happen again?


Only one man, with a bullet wound to the head, and three small dogs, survived the massacre.

Sizzlers killers Adam Woest and Trevor Theys are both serving life sentences for the murders of Aubrey Otgaar, Sergio de Castro, Stephanus Fouche, Travis Reade, Johan Meyer, Timothy Boyd, Gregory Berghaus, Marius Meyer and Warren Visser.

Following the grisly attack the spotlight turned on to the "rent boy" industry and calls were made to clean up Sea Point, which was branded as a seedy and dangerous underworld home of drugs and gangs.

But five years later, the gay escort business is booming and Sizzlers is now just a dim memory.

"Life goes on," said one man, who has been in the business for 14 years.
'Hate crimes take place across race, age, religion and gender'


Could it happen again?

"Nothing is impossible. We are all vulnerable to hijackings, robberies. All we can do is take more care."

He said technology had probably changed the nature of the business over the past five years.

Today people tended to hook up on the internet before meeting their client, and most rent boys no longer lived in private homes like the Sizzlers boys did at 7 Graham Street. A number of them came from smaller, conservative country homes, and had families who had no idea what they were doing. It made identifying them that much harder.

Some came from broken families. Some saw the work as a stepping stone towards something better.

Some had girlfriends and weren't even gay.

Glenn de Swardt, manager of health services, counselling and research at the Triangle Project, a gay and lesbian organisation, said business was back to normal with plenty of boys getting into the industry to make money for drugs.

De Swardt said many urban legends had grown out of the Sizzlers massacre.

Even today, five years later, questions remained over the motive for the extraordinary attack and whether a third attacker had been involved, he said.

But these perplexing questions, De Swardt added, would probably forever remain unanswered.

The gruesome slaying touched on the "shadow element of society", one that was seldom acknowledged.

De Swardt, who testified as an expert witness for the prosecution during the high-profile Sizzlers trial on how the attack affected the community, said that violent hate crimes continued today, but were not always discussed.

The most recent victim of such attacks was gay Muizenberg architect Peter Sim, 68, who was stabbed to death at his Killarney Road home on December 28 or 29.

He had earlier reported being harassed because of his sexuality.

He was stabbed about 17 times and his body was described as having been "butchered".

De Swardt said others who were targeted included black lesbians who were at high risk of rape by men who believed they could "cure" the women by having sex with them.

"Hate crimes take place across race, age, religion and gender and people need to speak out and condemn these attacks," he said.

De Swardt said "gay bashing" was still rife, with homosexuals being regarded as soft targets.

"Even at school, children have to put up with teasing and taunting about their perceived sexual orientation," said De Swardt.

He said people appeared to focused on race attacks.

"But maybe it is time to look at other forms of hate crimes," he added.

Marlow Valentine, manager of community engagement and empowerment programmes at the Triangle Project, said they will launch the 777 campaign next month to highlight hate crimes and gender-based violence.

National leaders were frequently quite happy to speak out about general violence against women but said nothing when it came to the killing of gay people.

"There are a lot of cases that are not being followed up. The police don't take them seriously and we often only hear about them after the fact," said Valentine.

There was a definite increase in attacks on black lesbians and effeminate men.

"People are being stalked and harassed and often end up the victims of brutal murders."

He said Sim had been the target of homophobic and verbal abuse by patrons of a pub next door to his Muizenberg house prior to his murder.

"He was quite involved with the youth in the area but people branded him a paedophile."

Valentine said they were starting to record incidents of harassment and abuse even if they didn't result in a murder.

"We want to start keeping statistic s so we can put preventative programmes in place," he said.