Johannesburg | Wednesday
PROSTITUTES would be better protected against abuse and exploitation if the practice was decriminalised, the Constitutional Court heard on Wednesday.
The court was hearing argument on the validity of a section of the Sexual Offences Act relating to prostitution.
The case arose from a Pretoria High Court judgment last August that a section of the Sexual Offences Act dealing with furnishing of sex for reward was unconstitutional, while provision with brothel keeping was not.
A massage parlour owner, Ellen Jordan and two of her employees, asked the court to refer the question of the constitutionality of the legislation to the Constitutional Court for adjudication.
The matter involved a request that order of unconstitutionality against the provision criminalising prostitution be confirmed, as well as an appeal against the refusal to declare the provision relating to brothel keeping unconstitutional.
The national and provincial directors of public prosecutions opposed both the confirmation and appeal.
Advocate Gilbert Marcus SC, representing Jordan, told the court on Wednesday that several forms of abuse and exploitation of prostitutes were the consequences of its criminalisation.
”This segment of society is largely poor, and overwhelmingly women who are vulnerable to various forms of exploitation,” Marcus said.
He said prostitutes operated in unsafe, unfair and poor working conditions.
They were subjected to violence against which they had no protection.
Marcus said prostitutes were stigmatised, thus making it difficult for them to find other employment.
He also said their job had an adverse impact on safe sex.
”Many of these problems could be effectively addressed if the practice was decriminalised.”
A number of parties, including the Commission for Gender Equality, have been permitted to make oral and written submission in support of the confirmation and the appeal.
The hearing continues. – Sapa