Pretoria - The Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT) has called for an end to the harassment of sex workers by police officials.
This comes after the advocacy group had received reports that workers operating in the Pretoria West area known as “The Bush” were constantly being harassed by City of Tshwane Metro Police and SAPS officials. The group said it was in possession of testimonies from the sex workers and peer educators working for the Wits HIV Research Institute which is running outreach programmes for the sex workers.
It told of incidents where police burnt down the open field where the sex workers operated from.
“This form of harassment has continued for months and resulted in the isolation and increased danger for women working there. This was evidenced by the discovery of a sex worker brutally murdered in November, 2015,” said the group.
Media advocacy officer Lesego Tlhwale said that when police were approached, they allegedly noted that they had been given a directive from the mayor’s office to remove the sex workers from the area.
Tlhwale said witnesses who wanted to supply police with information regarding the murder of the sex worker were ignored and nothing had been done about finding the culprits behind the murder.
“The workers said police told them they would return to take their statements following the murder and have still not come back to them yet,” she said.
“The police in question have shown no empathy for those who found the body of the woman, and have not fulfilled their responsibilities as police officers. They even refused to take statements from some of the women who may assist in their investigation.”
The taskforce said the police in Pretoria East, seemingly with the support of the mayor, continued to bully sex workers in spite of clear evidence that this harms sex workers and increases their isolation from points of support and exposes them to extreme violence. Rather than protecting women from crime, the police are enabling it.
“The workers feel vulnerable, violated and don’t feel safe. When they are harassed by clients they can’t even go the police for assistance anymore because of the treatment they are also getting from them.”
Mayoral spokesman Blessing Manale said allegations about a directive from the mayor’s office for police officials to harass or remove the sex workers from the “Bush” were untrue. He said the office of the mayor dealt with safety concerns around the city and no such order had been given.
Tshwane Metro spokesman Senior Superintendent Isaac Mahamba said when dealing with members of the public, assumptions were often made that the police were harassing them but no such thing occurred.
He said members of his department were tasked to conduct themselves in a good manner when dealing with people at all times.
“We get complaints that people often feel harassed but we are just doing our jobs of ensuring that we enforce the law. People who feel that a particular officer has acted inappropriately are welcome to lodge a formal complaint,” he said.
“A case can be laid with the SAPS and we have a unit to deal specifically with complaints regarding the conduct of our members.”
Mahamba said the metro police would continue to conduct operations to combat crime at hotspots in the area. “I have been on some of the operations myself and know workers who say we are following them yet we will simply be attending to complaints of people being robbed and motorists attacked. It’s about enforcing the law for the safety of everyone and not harassment.”
SAPS spokeswoman Captain Augustine Selepe said a case had been opened regarding the murder of the sex worker and police were investigating.
Selepe urged members of the public with information that can assist the police to make an arrest to contact the station commander for Pretoria West or Lieutenant-Colonel Malema at 076 993 7108.
Pretoria News