The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has refused to speak out about a proposal on the unionising of prostitutes, which is expected to be put to its national congress in Gauteng next week.
Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven said on Tuesday media reports on the proposal emanated from a ”leaked version of some of the congress documents”.
It was Cosatu’s policy not to comment on leaked documents, in this case the agenda for next week, he said.
”We don’t want to start a debate in the media before delegates have done,” Craven said.
A submission was made to Cosatu earlier this year on the decriminalising of prostitution by the Sex Workers’ Education and Advocacy Taskforce (Sweat).
Sweat took legal action against the safety and security minister earlier this year over the police arresting prostitutes in Cape Town without any intention to prosecute them. Finding for Sweat, the court ruled that it was unlawful for the police to make arrests unless it was most probable there would be prosecution.
The submission, which is on Cosatu’s website, states that although the issue is contentious, ”the labour constituency has to take a position on it given that sex work is so closely related to labour law”.
”It is also evident that the current economic climate in South Africa and abroad will not in any way alleviate the problem, as increasing numbers of women, particularly, are subjected to poverty on a daily basis.”
Sweat submits that women carry the reproductive and caring burden in families and therefore need to survive to ensure the survival of the family unit.
”Whilst poverty alleviation is a long-term goal in South Africa, and is now amplified by a worsening economic recession, the sex-work industry in all likelihood will increase,” it suggests.
As this happened, the vulnerability of prostitutes would increase, with more violence and abuse.
”At the same time, sex workers will not enjoy the protection of labour legislation by the continued criminalisation of the industry.”
Sweat advised that it would be ”prudent” for Cosatu to call for the immediate decriminalisation of the industry.
It said this had to be coupled with support services, drug and HIV/Aids treatment centres, counselling, safe houses, outreach organisations to help prostitutes find alternative employment, and self-organisation of prostitutes to give them labour protection.
Cosatu also had to call for the abolition of trafficking in women and children for sexual exploitation.
”In the absence of a society free of capitalism, poverty and inequality, we do not have to condone the exploitation of women, but we do need to admit that this is a very real result of a poverty-stricken society and we have a duty to ensure that these women are sufficiently protected by the laws that govern,” Sweat recommended.
In July, the head of the Gauteng Independent Complaints Commission said the government should consider decriminalisation to curb police sexually and physically abusing prostitutes.
Calls for decriminalisation were also made by Gauteng Premier Nomvula Mokonyane, Justice Department Director General Menzi Simelane, and the Tshwaranang Legal Advocacy Centre.
These were in response to a call for public comment on a South African Law Reform Commission discussion paper, released in May.
This paper outlined the four options as: maintaining the status quo with total criminalisation of all adult prostitution and prostitution-related acts; partial criminalisation; non-criminalisation; or regulation.
It also set out what legislation would be affected by any changes to the policy on prostitution.
The issue first raised its head in March 2007, when then-police national commissioner Jackie Selebi asked the National Assembly’s safety and security committee to deal with the issues of prostitution and drinking in public before the 2010 World Cup.
He suggested that the government adopt innovative ways of ”controlling” public drinking and prostitution, both of which are presently illegal in South Africa. — Sapa