eNCA’s current affairs show has aired its latest episode investigating the phenomenon of blessers, a euphemism for “sugar daddies on steroids”, as the show refers to them.
It spoke to 27-year-old “blessee” Amanda Cele, who is unemployed but lives in a flat in the suburbs, drives a Mercedes and wears a range of luxury brands – all thanks to her blesser, who she said “makes things happen”.
Serge Cabonge, by his accent not a South African man, described himself as a blesser and claimed to have spent R100 000 on one of the women he has “blessed”.
He claimed that 75% of the women in South Africa expected money out of a relationship.
One of the women, Lesoa Seroka, revealed that the “required amounts” to take a woman home would be announced at the stokvel party (which was R300 on the night the cameras were there). She added that she understood that what was happening was akin to prostitution, but there were also differences from normal paid sex work.
Another woman at the party, Kaohelo, countered that it wasn’t prostitution, but “compensation” for going home with a man.
The Checkpoint episode concluded that these women were “entry-level blessees” who might later graduate to the more glamorous lifestyle of the suburbs.
