What is a sugar daddy? 

The North-West University (NWU) Humanities Student Academic Chapter (SAC) educated students on what a sugar daddy is on Thursday 17 March 2022 during a presentation at the Potchefstroom campus.

NWU Potchefstroom sociology lecturer Ms Boipelo Bahule started the event by providing insight into what a sugar daddy is and how young people find themselves having sugar daddies. In her presentation, she referred to blessers, stating that, “a sugar daddy’s expectation is that I want intimacy, I want someone who gets excited when they see me, I want someone who revives me”. 

She further went on to say that in society, “we have this statement that says ‘no strings attached’. These things are not only confined to sugar daddy and sugar baby relationships, even amongst young people, we call it friends-with-benefits, hook-up culture and a place to escape,” Bahule said. 

The audience was asked if they have had experiences with sugar daddies or know of other people who have experienced sugar daddy benefits. Many problems were raised, such as poor financial backgrounds, friends, social pressures and choices young people make. 

Thandiwe Twala, a masters’ student in social anthropology and intern lecturer, spoke about a student who could not pay for her studies and had to approach the sugar daddy route. She said, “the age gap when it comes to power dynamics, shows that, as a blessee, she was not given an opportunity to have a say because she had to submit to her provider”.

She went on to say that, “as students, we are faced with different things and some of them might be because of our poor backgrounds versus those with rich backgrounds. Empathy would really help because if you put yourself in someone’s shoes, you would know how to act or how to help them”.

When asked about the event, Carla van Zyl (23), organiser and current affairs portfolio holder for the SAC committee, said, “I started doing research and found that it’s not just our students, it’s also an international student thing going on as well, the term sugar daddy is known.”

“My goal for current affairs was to really take it out of the normal box, I wanted to broaden the horizon and make the event interactive where they get to say their piece on what they think and what they believe,” said van Zyl.