The streets of Pretoria are becoming increasingly dangerous for sex workers, reports Tangeni Amupadhi
Prostitutes walking the dark streets of Pretoria know that danger lurks around any corner. But they were particularly anxious this week, following the murder of a co-worker.
The body of an as yet unidentified prostitute was found lying face-up in a disused building in Marabastad in the early hours of Sunday morning. Her clothes rested beside her naked body. Police say she was raped repeatedly and they are awaiting a pathologist’s report to determine whether she was strangled or suffocated.
But she was certainly murdered, just like her more upmarket counterpart who was stabbed several times in the neck last month. The two operated under completely different conditions. The woman killed this week walked the streets, the other operated more discreetly, using a room in a Sunnyside flat.
Police have ruled out the possibility of a serial killer, but agree the streets are increasingly becoming too dangerous for the prostitutes.
According to the Sex Worker Education and Advocacy Taskforce (Sweat), nine prostitutes were stabbed to death in the first six months of this year in Cape Town. The last victim’s body was found at Sunset Beach with multiple wounds to the head and body inflicted by a sharp instrument.
Between 1992 and last year 19 prostitutes were strangled to death by a serial killer. A suspect was arrested for one of the murders but was released.
Although worried by the killing of their colleague, the attitude of most prostitutes in Struben Street, Pretoria, this week was “life goes on”, mixed with fear of “who’s next?”.
Asked for an interview, Nonhlanhla – a street worker – needed a lot of persuading that she was not going to be led away to be killed. She eventually agreed to talk, on condition that she did not have to move off her turf.
“I’m starting to be careful now because I work alone. Sometimes the clients are violent but not to the extent of killing people,” she said.
Nonhlanhla claims she normally works in upmarket Sunnyside, but would not explain what she was doing in seedy Marabastad. She is smartly dressed compared to most of the competition around her, many wearing only a bra and a pair of mini shorts.
Nonhlanhla is now considering working with a group of women, for safety reasons.
No one knows who is responsible for the killing or what the motive is. Pretoria police are not about to press a panic button. Inspector Gideon Thessner says the two murders in as many months are “separate and unfortunate” incidents.
But the figure could be higher because records do not classify victims as prostitutes. Thessner says it is difficult to detect violence against prostitutes because they themselves prefer to look the other way.
A few blocks further up from Struben Street is the Capital Inn, one of many well-known hang-outs for the sex workers. Here violence against prostitutes is a nightly affair.
A hotel worker – a Ferdi Barnard lookpalike – kicks one of the “girls” down the stairs and into the street. He slaps her around declaring: “No one saw anything, OK.” Another prostitute explains that her colleague got what she deserves, because she was making unwanted advances to patrons in the bar.
Violence against prostitutes is widespread partly because the authorities condone it, says Rachel Khatlane, a sex worker and media officer for Sweat.
She says the major problem is that police take prostitutes’ complaints lightly. “No one is ever arrested.”
While Thessner maintains the attacks on prostitutes are not a priority crime, these are getting “attention. We have regular patrols and other crime prevention measures in places where we have many prostitutes.”
Khatlane says the killings in Cape Town have spread fear on the streets, and prostitutes now take men with them for protection when they go to work on the streets.
“Some take pimps, male friends, husbands and boyfriends. It is now standard practice to take down the car registration number and check the boot of the car – maybe the client is not alone. We also demand to choose the place where we feel safe rather than where the client wants to go.
“But what worries us more,” says Khatlane, “is that young people join the profession without being warned about the dangers. Most of the information published only gives the impression that good money is being made.”