Part 1 Cassandra Solomans was still in high school when she decided to play the tasting game. It started off with zol and slowly moved to cocaine and crystal methaphetine. Getting the drugs was easy – there was always a friend of a friend and if that failed you could always go to the corner shop.It was in fact a shopkeeper who first introduced Cassandra and her friend to a Lolly lounge. A Lolly lounge, or suiker huisie as it’s also known is a standard house, usually rented, with a caretaker in charge. Young girls are first lured in with free fixes. Once they’re hooked, they have to pay their way. And finding that money isn’t too difficult. Men are on standby ready to sleep with the girls and pay for the sexual service. The young people live out their fantasies.Cassandra’s family life suffered her parents reported her missing several times after not seeing her for weeks.While the girls don’t have to pay rent to live in a Lolly lounge, they do have a few responsibilities. The lounges are run by married men, who basically just check in from time to time to collect money from the drugs sales. 18-year old Cassandra landed in a jail cell after one day being caught in possession of drugs. But her yearlong encounter at the Sun City prison did nothing to reform her. An older woman convinced her to sell dagga to the juveniles. Cassandra continued her drug binge even after prison. And then she found out she was pregnant. She approached a local NGO for help and has committed to turning her life around.
Part2 In Part two of our series, another young woman opens up about her experience in a Lolly lounge. She tells of how she even stole bullet proof vests from the inside of a police van to come up with drug money. The 26-year old explains that getting out of these drug dens is like dicing with death.
Part 3 At first he was a high flying drug lord. Then it all came crashing down. He lost his marriage, his business, drifted away from his children and fell ill. Now he has dedicated his life to helping young girls get out of drug dens and rebuild their lives. Senior Reporter Melini Moses speaks to Fazil Carrim, a Johannesburg man who used to run a Lolly lounge.
Part 4 She’s dedicated her life to making sure that young women who’ve gone down the wrong path get a second chance. Cheryl Pillay spends her time raising awareness about the danger of drugs, encouraging drug lords to close down their operations and overseeing a rehabilitation centre for women who’ve decided to kick the drug habit. In the fourth part of our series on Lolly Lounges, Senior Reporter Melini Moses speaks to Pillay about her calling…
Part 5 Sex, drugs, rape and emotional abuse. This is what Lolly lounges have become known for. During our series, we’ve been speaking to women who’ve come out of these drug dens. A man who used to run a Lolly lounge shared his experience with the SABC, and we profiled a Johannesburg woman who has dedicated her life to rehabilitate young girls who’ve chosen to walk away from drugs. Senior Reporter Melini Moses wraps up the series…
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