Sex workers’ advocacy group Sweat said on Tuesday that the legal action it has launched to stop police harassing prostitutes is a last recourse.
”Bringing this legal action is not a step that Sweat has taken lightly,” the organisation said in its first substantive comment since it filed papers in the Cape High Court last week.
It said it has for years been trying to resolve unlawful arrests of sex workers with the Cape Town city police, the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the Independent Complaints Directorate.
”Since all our attempts to resolve this issue in a more constructive way have failed, we have been left with no option but to bring legal action,” it said in a statement.
Sweat said though it believes selling sex or soliciting should not be criminal offences, the current legal position is that various acts relating to sex work are criminalised, and sex workers are liable to be arrested and prosecuted for these acts.
”However, no one can be arrested and detained simply for ‘being’ a sex worker, arrested and harassed when there is no evidence that they have committed an offence, or arrested for non-existent offences to placate community members who complain about having sex workers in their neighbourhood,” it said.
”These actions are all unlawful, and prohibited in terms of the Constitution that guarantees everyone’s rights — including those of sex workers.
”And it is these police actions that we are asking the high court to stop.”
Sweat has asked the court for an order declaring that no member of the SAPS or city police in Cape Town may arrest sex workers for an ”ulterior purpose”.
It said it has identified patterns of sex workers being arrested, detained overnight or for the duration of a weekend, and released without prosecution.
It believes the police are seeking to clear the streets of sex workers, at least temporarily, and to punish sex workers without recourse to the full requirements of the criminal justice system.
The SAPS and the city have filed notice of their intention to defend the application. — Sapa