JOHANNESBURG (AFP) — The poster is fixed to lampposts all along the main street of an upscale Johannesburg neighborhood: a finger pressed to full red lips, the word “Luvland” split by a heart.

At the corner of the street is one of the brand’s 80 South African boutiques. On a continent where sex shops are few and far between, if not banned outright, South Africa is an outlier.

The country’s flourishing sex store sector developed from the ambitions of a few flamboyant entrepreneurs, a wave of sexual liberation at the end of apartheid 30 years ago, and the influence of Larry Flynt, the scandalous United States porn king of the 1970s.

“During the apartheid era, we were a very staunch Calvinistic society,” said Sharon Gordon, 64, a one-time human rights lawyer who became an industry pioneer in the 2000s with her luxury Lola Montez brand.

“The Church governed most things. Pornography was illegal. You went to jail for it,” she said.

“Then 1994 comes, we have our first elections, and a whole lot of stuff is legalized. Pornography is legalized, cross-cultural marriage is legalized, gay marriage is legalized, abortion is legalized,” she told Agence France-Presse.

Women, couples

South Africa’s once-seedy sex stores, which mainly provided porn for men to take away or consume in on-site viewing booths, underwent a makeover in the 2010s.

Today they are “adult stores” that cater to women and couples and often resemble cosmetic boutiques, offering sex toys in discreet packaging, massage oils, naughty board games and lubricants.

Pornography, just a click away since the internet revolution, is absent and there are no cubicles.

Patrick Meyer, a spry septuagenarian with tattoos, an earring and a rock-star vibe, was a forerunner of the transformation, which accompanied the rapid expansion of his Luvland brand.

After a brief stint in the telephone sex business, his partner at the time secured from Flynt the South African rights to distribute Hustler magazine.

The pair went on to open Hustler outlets, which they later sold.