EL sex workers protest cop
abuse
By ZWANGA MUKHUTHU on
March 9, 2013 in
EAST
London sex workers are fed up with rough policemen who assault them and
demanded sexual favours in broad daylight in a park near Eastern Beach.
RIGHT TO
DIGNITY: Sex workers hit the streets in East London yesterday to protest abuse
from SAPS members Picture: MARK ANDREWS
Sex
workers say police arrest them for loitering, detain them without charging them
and starve them for 18 hours in custody while denying them their rights to
medication.
Other allegations include threats to lock them up with male prisoners, spraying them in the cells with water from a hosepipe and releasing them from the cells at 3am.
Yesterday, about 50 sex workers vented their anger by marching to the Fleet Street police station where they handed over a memorandum to the top brass at the station. They demand that police find new and “dignified” methods of policing prostitution. They also want police to develop a system where complaints by sex workers are taken seriously like complaints from any other citizen. They also want to be protected from the violence perpetrated against them by police, clients, human traffickers and gangsters.
Sex worker Soso Ben said she had been manhandled by an identifiable policeman who confiscated her condom, placed it on his middle finger and inserted it in her vagina saying he was searching for drugs.
Other allegations include threats to lock them up with male prisoners, spraying them in the cells with water from a hosepipe and releasing them from the cells at 3am.
Yesterday, about 50 sex workers vented their anger by marching to the Fleet Street police station where they handed over a memorandum to the top brass at the station. They demand that police find new and “dignified” methods of policing prostitution. They also want police to develop a system where complaints by sex workers are taken seriously like complaints from any other citizen. They also want to be protected from the violence perpetrated against them by police, clients, human traffickers and gangsters.
Sex worker Soso Ben said she had been manhandled by an identifiable policeman who confiscated her condom, placed it on his middle finger and inserted it in her vagina saying he was searching for drugs.
Captain
Mbulelo Pika, head of a crime prevention at Fleet Street, addressed the sex
workers yesterday. He said: “Your concerns are very legitimate and we will
undertake to address and resolve them speedily.”
Leigh-Ann van der Merwe, a sex worker representative, said she was happy with the outcome of the march, but hoped it was “not another exercise of window-dressing by police”. — zwangam@dispatch.co.za
Leigh-Ann van der Merwe, a sex worker representative, said she was happy with the outcome of the march, but hoped it was “not another exercise of window-dressing by police”. — zwangam@dispatch.co.za
