Memoirs of a Sex Worker

I would like to sit the whole of today and continue writing but that is not possible now.  The memories stir up emotions that won’t go away, seeking expression in words or images. The words are in my head and the feelings are in my heart, buried under layers of lies, deceptions, addictions, denial and secrets.

They come from a dark and angry and lonesome place. A place where bad children go to because they don’t listen to their parents, go to church or follow the precise rules of community and society.

I always wanted to live my life my way, in a way that had meaning for me and value to my family and my world.

This was my crime and this my punishment. Am I doomed to forever walk the street broiling in summer and freezing in winter, without a life because I was the keeper of respectable people’s secrets?

‘The guardian of the public virtue’ as we were known in more conservative times. The days before everything was permissible in our corrupted society. Everything that is that has been sanctioned and blessed by those that determine the morals of others.

Poisonous movies, destructive lifestyles, children with absent parents. All of these are accepted until someone kills someone else and then for one second gasps and thinks ‘how did this happen, who is to blame the parents, the mother, the government, and my favourite one ‘because religion is not part of the school curriculum’.

Charging money upfront for sex is not included in this sanction and rarely is in any time and place. What is it that makes sex workers such an easy target for the hatred and violence of anyone who has a voice or a weapon? What drives this animosity to sex workers, this uninhibited avalanche of vitriol, of morality, this endless one sided debate on how wicked women are who sell their bodies.

Why do people hate prostitutes so much. What is truly behind this anger? This is the question I would like answered.
Can it be answered?

Sex work and the 2010 Soccer World Cup

Report on consultation and HIV/AIDS, Sex Work and the 2010 Soccer World Cup: Human Rights, Public Health, Soccer and Beyond:Cover
Report in PDF

‘Police unlawfully arresting sex workers’- COPE

“The Congress of the People are concerned with the recent actions of the City of Cape Town’s Vice Squad in unlawfully arresting sex workers in contravention of the interdict granted to SWEAT. Any action taken by the Police outside of the parameters of the law should ring alarm bells for civil society. This is a concern as any action taken by the police in defiance of instruction from the High Court is both legally and ethically unjustifiable.

Many sex workers have found themselves in that line of work as a result of social and economic conditions not of their own making. To crack down with such force, and in defiance of the authority of the courts is surely a sign of the unwillingness or inability to go for the source of the problem, like the rampant drug culture in our poorer communities.

Sex workers are an easy target for law enforcement officials. To target them may make headlines in the papers, but it won’t make a dent on the broader issues in society at large. They are treating the symptoms of a dysfunctional society, not the cancer at the root of it all.

If the City of Cape Town is to stand as an example of what can a good administration can deliver to the rest of the people of South Africa, it must begin from the basis of respecting the rule of law.

COPE calls on the City of Cape Town’s Vice Squad to respect the human dignity of the sex workers, the authority of the courts and the rule of law of the Republic of South Africa.

For further information, contact Phillip Dexter on 082 453 4088″

City’s vice squad violating SWEAT’s interdict

Lawyers acting on behalf of SWEAT (Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce) have submitted a letter to the City of Cape Town detailing in legal terms why the ongoing arrests of sex workers are unlawful and requesting that the City respond by 5 November.

On 16 October 2009 the City issued a media release stating that they had arrested 84 sex workers for soliciting and that the purpose of the arrests was to ‘profile sex offenders at the police station and register them on the City database if they are habitual offenders’ – such evidence ‘can subsequently be used should habitual offenders be arraigned in court’. All eighty-four of the sex workers who were arrested were released ‘after being profiled and fined’.

According to letter written by Angela Andrews from the Legal Resource Centre: ‘The arrests violate the terms of the  interdict granted in favour of SWEAT by the High Court on 20 April 2009, and the circumstances in which arrests can be made without a warrant. Such arrests must be made with the intention on bringing the arrestee before a court and cannot be made with the intention of “profiling” an alleged offender or imposing a series of admission of guilt fines on them.’

Vivienne Lalu, advocacy coordinator at SWEAT felt that the City should be held accountable to the law like everyone else. She further stated that sex workers fought long and hard to obtain the interdict. She said: ‘Sex workers do have rights even though the work they do is considered a crime.’ SWEAT would value any opportunity to engage the City regarding this matter. The random arrests of sex workers not only fails to address real crimes and those criminals who capitalize upon sex workers, but cause the industry to be driven further underground and result in sex workers not being able to access their human rights.

Police crack down on sex workers

The recent decision by the City of Cape Town to establish a special vice squad will leave real criminals untouched, while further victimizing sex workers — who, far from being criminals are already among the main victims of crime.

In the past months several sex workers have been killed in Cape Town and other parts of South Africa. We know of three murders in Cape Town. Far from sex workers being criminals, they are in fact among the main victims of crime.

Councillor JP Smith confuses cause and effect when he says that sex work is associated with other forms of crime. When sex work is made illegal, it is driven underground and regulated by criminals. On the other hand when sex workers are allowed to operate openly, they have proved, here and in other parts of the world, to play a valuable service assisting the police to fight crime.

Sex workers in one part of Cape Town, for example, created an informal neighborhood watch which, amongst other things, resulted in the arrest of a murder suspect. In New Zealand the relationship between police and sex workers has improved since decriminalisation. But in Cape Town, instead of being applauded for performing a civic duty, the response is to crack down and arrest sex workers.

This measure is a cynical game of smoke and mirrors – it creates the appearance that the city is getting serious about fighting crime. Sex workers are easy targets and they are useful in helping the police raise their arrest figures. But while this is happening attention is diverted from other, far more serious issues – including widespread violence against women. The chief causes of crime in the city remain untouched.

The creation of a vice squad is also totally out of synch with the national debate currently taking place around sex work. It speaks of a show of force, power and crude insensitivity. Under apartheid when the police where exposed of unlawful acts, detention without trial, the response was crude force. More recently – in the past few months – Sweat has taken the police to court for unlawful arrests – this time, of sex workers. History repeats itself, and poverty is criminalized.

Not all police officers act in an unlawful manner. In fact several police officers have come to SWEAT, unofficially, to complain about the behavior of some of their colleagues. Clearly there are some amazing police officers who want to address real crime, and see the potential in working with sex workers to do this.

Sex work will not go away. What will occur with J Councillor JP Smith action is that it will be more difficult for mothers to put food on the table for their children and pay school fees.

SWEAT endorses calls for an end to heterosexist violence

On the second anniversary of Zoliswa Nkonyana's murder, the Joint Working Group, an umbrella network of national GLBTI organizations, launched the 07-07-07 Campaign in Capetown and Johannesburg with Western Cape alliances. The Campaign takes its name from the date of the Soweto murders and operates at a national level. It aims to drawn attention to the increasing violence faced by black township homosexual women and to provide support to those engaged in legal action related to this hate-based violence.

SWEAT (Sex worker and Advocacy Taskforce) endorses recent calls by the Western Cape End Hate Alliance and other LGBTI activists and Human Rights defenders, for an end to heterosexist violence.

Over the past two months we have seen the murders of three sex workers. The voices that shout so loudly to express moral outrage at the thought of decriminalizing sex work, are strangely silent about these outrageous killings. There are no screaming newspaper headlines, no columns or even centimeters of print denouncing these deaths.

How do we comprehend this indifference? Clearly in our society, there is the assumption that some lives matter, and others do not. Hate crime is rooted in a very real but specific sort of identification and exclusion of those who are seen to be outside a very narrow area of the norm and normality. Is this the kind of society we want – a society united not by inclusion and belonging, but by a shared sense of hate and exclusion?

With the murder of a woman in Cape Town, we lost a friend. The response of these sex workers who lived with and knew her, was to set up a neighbourhood watch. The murder suspect was arrested as a direct result of this initiative. This courageous and important action by sex workers has also not received public attention.

There are many more sex workers who would gladly join other neighbourhood watch schemes. The sad irony is that while sex workers are offering our society an important and imaginative possibility in the fight against crime, they continue to be labeled as criminals themselves, and deserving of hate.

The Constitution of South Africa affords all citizens of this nation human rights and dignity, irrespective of their race, gender and sexual orientation. But this does not seem to be the case for black lesbians. They are targeted in their communities. The law is not protecting them, nor is it taking action against those who infringe on their human rights and dignity.

It is about time that the authorities take the issue of rape seriously so as to ensure the protection of all women. We want to see the perpetrators go to trial, and the victims and survivors have their day in court.

These are not issues that only affect one group, but the nation as a whole. SWEAT fully supports the Alliance and this cause, to demand justice for Zoliswa Nkonyana and others who are affected by hate crimes.

Regrets rot the heart

My name is Muchaneta (‘you will eventually tire’) I come from Zimbabwe. I came to S.A (South Africa) to look for work, but found things very difficult, so I decided its best I become a prostitute. It is very difficult to look for work in a foreign country especially when your papers are not in order and really, nothing comes to those who just sit. I have been working for two years now as a prostitute while staying at a hotel in Johannesburg.

While working this job, I met a certain man in the hotel where I reside, as there is a bar on its ground floor. This man told me he wanted to take me home with him and so having agreed to his proposition, he then left money for me where I reside. So we went together where he lives, without him telling me he lived there with many other men. I was to find out the hard way as all six men then slept with me without putting on condoms. I cried helplessly as I had nowhere to go and report. I was afraid to go to the police for fear of being returned home as my papers are not in order. In addition, sometimes going to the police when you are a prostitute they do not listen to you and instead say ‘she who goes looking for scars will get them, you got what you were looking for.’

This being the case, the following day I went to the hospital whereupon I was examined by some doctors who confirmed that I did not have H.I.V in my blood. As prostitutes, we experience a lot of things especially when male customers ask and you tell them (that you are a foreigner), they then treat you like a slave. So one really has to be very brave or else die of hunger.

All we are asking for are better means of survival in this foreign land and recognition that we are human as everyone else and not wild animals. We went to school and passed our examinations and it is only the scarcity of jobs that has led us to prostitution. We are therefore appealing that government kindly put in place laws that prohibit the police from treating us like slaves and instead help us in times of trouble. Moreover it (the government) should provide prostitutes with a designated place to work (ply their trade) and also put in place a law that protects prostitutes.

Please forward with the Decriminalization of Sex. VIVA SEX WORKERS VIVA – DRAFT SUBMISSION TO THE SOUTH AFRICAN LAW REFORM COMMISSION (PDF).

Felicia’s story

Felicia’s story My name is Felicia. I’m 39 years old. I come from Limpopo Province, a place called Libode. I finished my matric in 1990 and I didn’t get bursaries. I am the elder daughter with two siblings and one handsome son. My mother and father got divorced. In that situation I moved to Jo’burg looking for a better life or greener pastures. Because my plan was to get a job and to go to the university to study.

So I phoned my former schoolmate while I was in Libode and told her that I’m not working and want to come to Jo’burg. She said I must come and stay with her. I was very scared when I arrived in Jo’burg because Jozi is the home of crime. I stayed with my friend in a flat for almost six months in Hilbrow. And life was so difficult for me b’coz I was scared to go to town to look for a job in shops and factories.

For six months I was looking for jobs in the shops and factories but with no luck. During this time I survived or I was supported by my former schoolmate/friend but I didn’t know what kind of job she was doing. But in the evening she packed her mini skirt [isgcebhezane], wore wigs and make-up, and only coming back in the morning the next day. In the meantime I would be left in the flat all by myself.

I suspected that there was something going on. So I ended up asking her what’s her real job was. She asked if she can trust me and I she told me it’s supposed to be confidential. It must be between me and her. She told me that she is a sex-worker. She sells her body b’coz she didn’t find jobs in Jo’burg. She asked me to join her. I didn’t have a choice, I also didn’t find any.

My first day at work was so difficult b’coz we were working on the streets of Jozi where I’m afraid of. Other clients were so cruel and I ended u lost. But with the like of God I was saved by other girls from the streets who showed me the place to relax.

My biggest problem during sex work is; other clients want to take you to their places while u are at their places, they take you without giving u money or refuse to use condoms. Others beat you for nothing-others call their friends to rape you b’coz u are a sex worker. They say you deserve to be raped. They think sex workers are not human.

My biggest problem with the law and the police; I will start with the law; I think it will be better for us if they decriminalize sex work b’coz it’s our job, we don’t kill anyone when we are selling our bodies, we’re supporting our families. We don’t break the law like criminals. It is our way of living. Police; Police are crooks. We’re better than them. We don’t break the law. They need to be trained to work with sex workers when it is decriminalized. They are the ones who are supposed to support us not to abuse us. But as I know my rights, if they harass me, I laid the charges for them b’coz every person got rights no matter which job you are doing.

I think the best way to solve this would be to organize workshops and meetings with their seniors to talk with the not harass and abuse sex workers and their clients. I believe that the laws on sex work should say/state: They decriminalize sex work as I said last that it is our job, we support our families, we are not bread winners at home.

Forward with the Decriminalization of Sex. VIVA SEX WORKERS VIVA – DRAFT SUBMISSION TO THE SOUTH AFRICAN LAW REFORM COMMISSION (PDF).

The voice of sex workers! Should prostitution be legalised?

It’s actually a very good and important question. Sex work needs to be recognised as a career and should involve career training. But before one can ask if sex work should be legalised and what kind of training skills are required for this career, it is important to note that sex work is one of those questions that many people seem have made up their mind about even before listening to the argument. In the same way that upon seeing a sex worker people then think they know what that person is like. Why must I be reduced to a stereotype, a fantasy, an object of some bodies hate, why am I made to speak on behalf of all sex workers yet at the same time I am invisible.

Let me tell you about Sex Work and then you decide if Sex Workers should have the same human and employment rights as anybody else? Firstly, a sex worker is a person and like any person, has many interests. I like drama, story telling, dancing, swimming and the soapies. I feel passionate about the rights of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender community. I like being a sex worker and a role model to other sex workers. I like children and try to make a difference in their lives. I also like animals, especially tigers, elephants and lions. The people I would like to invite to a dinner party are Nelson Mandela, Praticila DeLille and Peter Derk Uys.

Sex work is a job like other jobs but when people meet you they do not ask you why you become a advertising executive or nurse, whilst the first and often only thing somebody wants to know when they meet me is why I am a sex worker!

There are many different kinds of sex workers – female, male, trans-gender, people who work on the streets and people who work in brothels or from their home. There are Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, black, coloured, white, Xhosa, Afrikaners, refugees, and homeless sex workers. Some sex workers hate the job and do it as it is the only way they can survive, others do it to support a drug habit whilst others like the job because they can act as sex therapists.

There are professional sex workers and those who unprofessional. I would like unprofessional sex workers to know and acknowledge that sex work involves other skills – communication, intimacy and trust building, understanding, respect, sex therapy skills, discipline and most importantly, patience. I am against those sex workers who rip off and stealing from clients. When they do bad things they put the lives of other sex workers at risk. All sex workers should conduct themselves professionally, something that would be easier to develop where sex work legal and like any other job with professional standards of conduct.

Let me tell you a story, a male sex worker said to me that he used to belong to a gang and rob flats, but it became too unsafe and many of his friends have been killed trying to break into flats. So he has decided to do sex work instead, he does not want to go back to crime. He likes most of his clients, as they are kind, he says it is a better life style than belonging to a gang. Again, if sex work were professional it would offer career possibilities.

So many people hate sex workers!! Why? What have we done to them! Why do people hate those who are not the same as them!!! Yes, there are some bad sex workers and yes, some sex workers use drugs, but there are also bad lawyers and some of them use drugs as well. People think it is ok to abuse violence against sex workers. In fact, one of the biggest problems facing sex workers is violence and sadly, often from the police. I am not saying all police are bad; some are kind and protect us but there are those who hurt us, rape and beat us and want our money. I have seen so many of my friends raped and then to be told, oh, you are a whore, whores cannot be raped, you are asking for it.

If Sex Work where legalised we would not have to go underground, we would not have to work in unsafe areas and take risks so as not to get caught. Each time we take a risk our life is more at risk. Imagine, I am in a car, in a unsafe area, I am having to watch the windows, hoping my friend got the registration number and now on top of this the client is refusing to wear a condom!

Some sex workers stop caring about themselves and their health, but many others refuse to accept societies prejudices. Sex work is here to stay, but what can change are our attitudes towards sex workers. What I am asking for and what other Sex Workers continue to ask for is to be treated as human beings, to have the same working rights as anybody else and to have a closer and better working relationship with the police.

Decriminalisation would be a vital step in this country towards dealing with violence and exploitation. It would allow police to get on with addressing real crime and in fact sex workers could assist with neighbourhood watches. It is too easy to focus all the problems on to one group of people so as to ignore and not to have to look at the real problems of society. Sex workers and the public need to know that sex workers have human rights and it is time sex workers stand up for their human rights and demand to be seen as both a professional and human being!

Decriminalisation and health

Jack Bloom, the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) health spokesman, stated recently that the decriminalisation of sex workers would be a grave mistake that would send the wrong signal to communities.

The Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT) would like to challenge Mr Bloom to produce evidence to support this statement, as it contradicts all the available evidence in the fields of medicine and public health, and runs counter to the respect for human rights that is enshrined in the South African Constitution and many international agreements and treaties to which South Africa is a signatory.

All the evidence indicates that criminalization of sex work is harmful to public health efforts as well as efforts to prevent the spread of HIV/Aids and other sexually transmitted infections. It also contributes to other social ills such as crime and violence against women. On the other hand, there is growing recognition that decriminalization of sex work actually has positive social spin-offs.

South Africa’s own HIV & AIDS and STI strategic plan for 2007-2011 calls for decriminalization of sex work, as it recognizes that sex workers face barriers to accessing HIV prevention and treatment services because their activity is unlawful.

A similar approach is adopted by UNAIDS, which realizes that where stigmatization prevails and sex work is driven underground, prevention and treatment of HIV/Aids becomes all but impossible.

Even the UK’s Royal College of Nursing has called on the British government to decriminalise prostitution in an attempt to limit associated negative health consequences.

Mr Bloom no doubt supports the protection of human rights afforded us in the South African Constitution. Yet the ongoing criminalisation of sex work means that sex workers are denied these rights. According to the UN, “sex workers in many settings are socially marginalised; suffer violence, discrimination, harassment and imprisonment.”

Surely, like everyone else, all sex workers have a human right to dignity, to liberty and security of person, and agency over their own bodies.

The UNAIDS Guidance Note on HIV and Sex Work unequivocally expects all UNAIDS Cosponsors and the Secretariat to support the empowerment of sex workers and to provide the space for their involvement and engagement in national and community level responses.  The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, has stated unequivocally that all countries should live up to their commitments and enact or enforce legislation that outlaws discrimination against members of vulnerable groups – including sex workers.

However, because of ongoing criminalisation, sex workers are exposed to occupational health and safety risks that would never ever be accepted in any other profession. This includes exposure to hazards, injuries, and diseases, harassment, violence, musculoskeletal injuries, bladder problems, stress, depression, alcohol and drug use, respiratory infections, latex allergy, the removal of children, and death.

Far from combating crime, the criminalization of sex work actually boosts organized criminal activity, because sex workers have so few options for protecting themselves from exploitation. Ongoing criminalization excludes sex workers from the basic conditions of employment afforded all other South Africans, and allows criminals, individual managers and corrupt police officers to determine the conditions under which sex workers work.

Because they are by and large female, sex workers remain particularly vulnerable to all crimes of violence against women. Having little access to legal protection makes them a soft and easy target for criminals. Sex workers around the world continue to be murdered at rates higher than the general population. In fact in some places, standardised mortality rates for sex workers are six times those seen in the general population.

If this is not disturbing enough, it is worth remembering that preventing violence is a global public health and human rights priority, as violence exacerbates the risk of sexually transmitted infections.

Decriminalization would go a long way towards reducing and preventing many of these ills. It would also empower individual sex workers as well as communities, by enabling open discussion of available options. Experience in other countries shows that decriminalization allows for successful initiatives that can result in enhanced self esteem; improved negotiating skills; ability to refuse clients; improved access and use of condoms; training to recognise, avoid, and escape violence; better STI and HIV preventive services; provision of safe houses; drop-in centres; and STI treatment. The experience in New Zealand for example, has shown that sex workers report clients wanting to practice unsafe sex, sex workers’ relationships with the police have improved, and there has been an improvement in occupational health and safety standards.

A recent article in the British Medical Journal, entitled “Protection of sex workers: decriminalisation could restore public health priorities and human rights,” argued that while the need to engage in the debate over decriminalisation is long overdue, rational debate is made difficult by ongoing “stereotyping, prejudices, myths, and a failure to appreciate the complexity and diversity of sex work and its social contexts”. We need much more rational debate on this issue and less of the irrational prejudice and stereotyping that is evident in views such as those expressed by Mr Bloom.