This is according to Eric Harper, director of the Sex Worker Education and Advocacy Taskforce.
He said only a small group of prostitutes were benefiting from the World Cup, with most reporting that they had seen a decrease in business compared to last year.
“We have received many complaints about sex workers being rounded up. We understand that police are taking a zero tolerance approach to the sex worker issue. The term being used is cleaning up the streets which infers that sex workers are dirty. The language itself is violent and derogatory towards sex workers.”
This is according to Eric Harper, director of the Sex Worker Education and Advocacy Taskforce.
He said only a small group of prostitutes were benefiting from the World Cup, with most reporting that they had seen a decrease in business compared to last year.
“We have received many complaints about sex workers being rounded up. We understand that police are taking a zero tolerance approach to the sex worker issue. The term being used is cleaning up the streets which infers that sex workers are dirty. The language itself is violent and derogatory towards sex workers.”
Harper said the belief that thousands of prostitutes were expected to flock into the country during the World Cup was untrue.
“A vast majority of sex workers both street based and brothel based are not benefiting from the World Cup. Instead they are being harassed and intimated by police which makes their working conditions worse.”
He said prostitutes should only be arrested if they were caught engaged in the physical act which was not the case during the World Cup with reports of women being arrested on their way to work.
Joyce Khuzwayo, spokeswoman for the Durban metro police, said it was untrue that a “special unit” had been set up to deal with prostitutes.
“If officers find sex workers loitering along streets or in the act they are arrested and taken to the police station.
“This is not being done specifically for the World Cup but forms part of the officers’ normal duties.”