A court interdict preventing police from arresting sex workers was granted because the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) consistently fails to prosecute them, the City of Cape Town said on Tuesday.
”The inaction of the NPA has undermined the city’s programme to reduce crime,” safety and security chairperson Councillor JP Smith said in a statement.
”We have been working to clean up the streets of Cape Town by acting against all forms of unlawful behaviour, including so-called minor offences.”
He said the city would resort to crime prevention, the so-called ”broken window” approach, to discourage ”an industry that is linked to abuse of women, HIV/Aids transmission, human trafficking and other criminal activity.
”The city has found a link between sex work and an increase in other criminal activities in an area.”
Smith said the city would convene a meeting on Wednesday to consider further legal steps to ensure enforcement of bylaws.
”If necessary and viable, we will seek to have charges against sex workers handled by municipal courts instead,” he said.
The order, handed down on Monday by Cape High Court judge Burton Fourie, followed claims by sex workers that police were arresting them merely to harass and intimidate them.
Fourie interdicted the South African police and the city’s metro police from arresting sex workers for any purpose other than to bring them to court to face prosecution.
He ordered the minister of safety and security, the national and Western Cape provincial commissioners of police, four Cape Town station commissioners and the City of Cape Town to pay the costs of the application.
The application was brought by an NGO, the Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Task Force, which welcomed the ruling. — Sapa