Ruling on erotic club today

JOHANNESBURG -- The Constitutional Court is expected to rule today on an application by the owner of the erotic club, The Ranch, to have certain clauses of the Liquor Act declared unconstitutional.

The Ranch's owner, Andrew Phillips, challenged certain clauses of the Act after his club was raided and subsequently closed down in 2000.

The Constitutional Court heard the case in August last year after the high court ruled in June that the contested clauses were unconstitutional.

Phillips is set to go on trial in the regional court here in August on charges of running a brothel and others related to the employment of illegal immigrants. He was arrested and released on bail of R10000 after the raid on his club in February 2000.

The Scorpions forced the club to close in December the same year and Phillips subsequently approached the Constitutional Court to have it reopened.

During the raid, 41 women were found on the premises, many of them who were allegedly in the country illegally.

The state alleges that, between June 1999 and February 2000, Phillips operated a brothel at The Ranch, procuring women to work as prostitutes. -- Sapa