Sex workers arrested for soliciting are in for a nasty shock — their cases are no longer dismissed as petty and automatically thrown out of court.
Nor is the Legal Aid Board allowing them free legal representation in court.
Sex worker Kathy Oosthuizen (35) discovered this on Wednesday, when she made her second appearance before Joe Magele in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court.
She told the court she had been refused legal aid, and would conduct her own defence. She said she wished to ”appeal against the charges”.
Magele replied: ”You can only do that once the case is finalised — not before it has even started”.
She said she wished to make representations ”to the court”, but the magistrate said her representations had to be in writing, to the prosecuting authorities.
He postponed the case to June 6, and warned: ”I expect to be informed on June 6 of the result of your representations — don’t come and say you haven’t done it yet”.
Another sex worker, Tracy Castle, was fined R300 or 30 days for failing to appear in court.
She exclaimed: ”How can I pay if I’ve been locked in a cell?”
The magistrate refused her demand to be ”let out for a night so I can make some money”.
For statistical purposes, special court registers reflect the names of accused persons appearing in court, the charges they face, the outcomes of the cases — such as guilty or not guilty — and the sentences imposed.
For months, however, the registers have been cluttered with solicitation charges against sex workers that have been automatically withdrawn by the prosecuting authorities, rather than pursued to finality.
To the dismay of magistrates, however, the same faces keep cropping up in courtrooms — only to step out of the dock again with the charges withdrawn.
Now, to show their displeasure, prosecutors no longer withdraw charges automatically, and magistrates insist that prostitutes make written representations to the senior prosecuting authorities for the withdrawal of charges.
Those who fail to do so within a time limit, are now prosecuted. – Sapa