I want you to know how proud we at STOP – Stop Trafficking of People are to have a town counsel whose members take their jobs seriously.
As you know, prostitution is against the law, but it does not end there.
Seventy percent of the prostitution in the United States is linked to organized crime.
In the Netherlands, where prostitution is legal and street prostitutes are only allowed to practice their trade in red light areas, the government admitted that a legalized sector does not remove the illegal, nor reduce the involvement of organized crime.
In SA organized crime was noted as an essential element of trafficking operations specifically in respect to commercial sexual exploitation. Qualitative interviews uncovered the proliferation of Nigerian organized criminal involvement in trafficking operations in the central business districts of Bloemfontein, Pretoria, Johannesburg, and Port Elizabeth.
The province of origin for victims most frequently noted was the Eastern Cape, followed by Kwa-Zulu Natal, Northwest Province, Limpopo, and the Northern Cape.
Research done by International Organization for Migration showed that the countries that have legalized prostitution have become magnets for human trafficking and associated crimes including drug dealing, child pornography child molestation, child prostitution and violence. Legalizing prostitution is a failed experiment it ignores the underlying social inequities that create it.
Prostitution and the use of drugs go hand in hand. Prostitutes need the drugs, so they are slaves to the pimps who supply it.
Girls as young as 12 are being abducted by pimps, drugged, raped for weeks to make them compliant and then sent out onto the streets to work as prostitutes. They are too afraid to talk, because their pimps are heartless, very cruel and violent.
The girls are being threatened that their loved ones or they themselves would be killed should they speak to anyone about it.
If they do not bring in enough cash for the day, they are burnt on their backs with cigarettes, beaten, raped, or their drugs or food are withheld from them for a day or two.
When Mr. Smith and the vice squad arrest these girls, they have the opportunity to find out what is really happening behind the scenes and where the sex and drug syndicates as well as the illegal abortion rooms are.
These girls will then have a chance to go into exit programs where they will be counseled, cured from their drug habits, get medical treatments, and trained in various skills to empower them to earn an income using their trained skills.
Three quarters of prostitutes in the Netherlands wish to attend exit programs to enable them to leave.
We at STOP sent a proposal to the Law Reformed Committee suggesting that prostitution should be criminalized, but with an exit clause. Should the prostitute want to leave the trade, she neither has to appear in court, nor be given a criminal record, but rather be given the opportunity to submit herself to a government funded exit program where she can be treated physically (diseases, addictions),
Emotionally and do skills training which will empower her to earn a living when she is ready to go back into society.
I do not know of any girl who has dreamed all of her life to become a prostitute.
Law enforcement agencies and research institutions have identified South Africa as one of the countries in the southern part of Africa that is used by organized traffickers of human beings as a destination, transit and country of origin of victims in pursuing this abominable trade.
At the present time, South Africa does not have comprehensive legislation that addresses human trafficking. Currently, provisions listed under various legislation, referring to child welfare and sexual offences are used in prosecution. However, conviction rates are low and if convicted, offenders generally receive
minimal sentencing often just a monetary fine (UNODC, 2007: 5). Offenders can also be charged with rape or kidnapping which will bring a harsher sentence yet difficulties with these convictions exists.
I have all the faith in Cape Town's town counsel to fight crime and corruption and make her a crime free tourist destination and a safe place for us to raise our children without fear of being robbed, high-jacked, attacked or killed.
CARIN NEL (STOP)
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