contested
Gustav Thiel
Three Pretoria prostitutes, Ellen Jordan, Louisa Broodryk and Christine Jacobs, plan to petition the Constitutional Court later this year to legalise their business.
Opposing their application, Pretoria’s attorney general will cite a recent study that claims prostitutes spread Aids and rob their clients. Attorney Rachel van der Walt, who is assigned to the case, insists that legalising the sex industry will compound these problems.
The study, hailed by Van der Walt as “the most complete and comprehensive of its kind ever”, was commissioned by an American company, which wants to remain anonymous. It was compiled by a Pretoria woman Van der Walt describes as “remarkable”.
The woman, who also wants to remain anonymous “because revealing my name might jeopardise future projects”, uses the name “Oumies” when dealing with prostitutes in Pretoria. She has been conducting studies for foreign donors for 15 years, looking at illegal practices in a number of industries, such as horseracing, often at some danger to herself.
Her report will be a crucial component of Van der Walt’s case.
For the study of prostitution, she used high-tech video and audio equipment, which was placed strategically in areas where the women operate. This was done with the permission of the authorities.
Says Oumies: “I spent eight months among the prostitutes of Pretoria and other cities and I can say without doubt that, while they are not bad people, they are responsible for spreading Aids and robbing their clients blind.”
Her report estimates more than 10 000 full- time prostitutes operate in South Africa, most of them in Johannesburg and Pretoria – although thousands are leaving Johannesburg because they fear for their safety.
Her most startling finding is that more than 97% of all prostitutes’ clients are married men and less than 5% of these men and the prostitutes use contraceptives when having sex. Although she distributes more than 10 000 condoms to prostitutes every week in Pretoria alone, these are resold to schoolchildren.
The only device used by most prostitutes is a bath sponge inserted into their vaginas. Oumies says while this provides some protection, the women use it more to absorb the shock of having to cope with an average of 30 clients a night.
Pretoria’s prostitutes were willing to test for Aids, she says, although those who tested positive said they would carry on working.
In Pretoria, 168 of the 545 women in the study tested HIV-positive, in Johannesburg 323 of 630 women and in the Free State 69 of 256. Oumies also tested 136 male clients in Pretoria, and 62 of them tested positive. More than 50% of their wives also tested positive.
“If we legalise prostitution, you can rest assured that Aids will spread even more rapidly. The girls and their clients simply don’t use contraception. We are staring a major catastrophe in the face,” she says.
The report claims that 99% of all prostitutes engage in some form of criminal activity, like using drugs, robbing their clients, spiking clients’ drinks and stealing their possesions while they are asleep.
“Almost all the men will not lay charges because they are married,” Oumies says. “This is a huge problem and will probably never be solved. The only answer that I have is for these men to try and find satisfaction at home. But I have seen that paying for sex becomes addictive and the men just can’t stop themselves.” She says the majority of clients are professional men with successful careers. In Pretoria a sizeable number of clients are diplomats.
Most of the prostitutes, Oumies found, have matric certificates “and it is not as if they need to sell their bodies. They do it because the money is good. I found suitable alternative employment for 27 prostitutes in Pretoria, but within a week 24 of these were back on the streets.
“My final assessment,” she states in the report, “is that the legalisation of prostitution will be a regressive step in the struggle to establish equality between men and women.”
The prostitutes will argue at the Constitutional Court that legalising their industry will provide more safety for sex workers. The authorities would then have to make Aids tests for prostitutes and their clients compulsory and police would provide protection for clients and prostitutes. Legalisation would help eradicate the stigma attached to the profession.