New approach to sex work

Prohibition has never worked. Despite constant crackdowns in Cape Town prostitution continues unabated and uncontrolled. The problems associated with prostitution can be solved through legalisation and control. Moralists who will no doubt complain must answer me this. Is it better for a prostitute to work in a safe controlled environment or is it preferable to have kerb-crawlers?

..and explain to me the difference between a rich man paying for dinner for a girl and then bedding her, and a poor man paying cash to a girl and then bedding her. Why do I congratulate the rich man and arrest the poor man?

Why is that the clear evidence that legalisation has failed where it has been tried consistently ignored by some. Why do folks still persist in clinging to the myth/fantasy of big brothels filled with happy, disease free hookers all for their pleasure. It is a fantasy, give it up. There is no such thing as 'safe' prostitution. Why not see the contradiction that if prostitution cannot be controlled when illegal the same places can somehow be controlled with even less powers by the City Council if legal - the police will not play a role at all if legal. Contrary to assertions that there are constant crackdowns in the Cape Town, apart from ongoing checks on licences and street women by the City, there is virtually no enforcement of the law by police and no arrests of clients. Sweden has shown, as the authors state, that arresting the johns works. The howls of outrage by the sex trade lobbyists when JP Smith wanted to introduce this in Cape Town is a fair indication of how effective they thought it would be in curbing the trade and therefore their bottom line. And Graham Johnson, you do realise that by calling all women whores you include you wife(if you have one)in this category.

Oh yes, Robyn, all women ARE whores, just as all men are punters. "Sex is the price women pay for marriage, and marriage is the price men pay for sex." I sell my body to the company that employs me, my wife sells her body to me. If you don't think that they or I pay for what we have you are on another planet. Go to Germany. They have had legal brothels for decades without major problems. There are many places where legal prostitution is good, successful and right. Including my home.

...and secretly, I think my wife enjoys being a whore sometimes. :)

Interesting. Personally, I believe prostitution should be legaised as their is an onus on government to provide a regulated environment to control associated risks and obtain taxes. Why? Purely because there is a demand, and it's the right thing to do for a secular government. My problem is just that the ANC will once again make a total cockup of this with crime being the ultimate & only beneficiary.
I don't have a need for prostitutes, well, I'm not completely honest considering Graham's take on things. But I have one question; the author of this blog goes on about the victimhood of females (perhaps a bit rich coming from an ANC member, especially if one considers the conduct of her president and other high profile members) but what about women who choose prostitution precisely for it's economic or recreational value and the power it grants them? Is that not just part of life? Every job has it's risks but perhaps her party should just legislate against sex in general, even in proper relationships. That may actually get some of her colleagues to do a decent day's work for a change.

Actually prostitution is basically uncontrolled in Germany. 90% of street prostitutes are drug addicts and 70% of those in brothels are foreign and very often illegal. Germany is one of the top trafficking destinations in the world. A recent report by the German Federal Govt has found that none of the goals of legalisation have been achieved and that there were no prospects that they would be. As the police have little to do with what is now legal it is very difficult to do anything about pimping and trafficking at all ( if that bothers you at all). Mostly it is ignored. Brothels were only legalised in 2002 and there are no specific health requirements at all. But then there is no arguing with someone who rejects objective facts because they dont suit his prejudices is there?

Robyn, there were legal brothels in Germany when I was there in the late 70's. I have never heard any of the things you claim as true. And if you are going to make silly comments without foundation, then I suggest you go back to the drawing board. Or bed. :)

What interests me is how are bed 'turn-overs' calculated in the SA economy - how do you tie down how many 'jons' per worker per evening? How do you count this number...? When you know nothing of the workers or the 'jons' because it is uncontrolled.

Statistics South Africa has decided to include illegal and underground economies, when calculating the countries’ gross domestic product.

Cannabis farming will now form part of the agricultural sector while prostitution falls within the personal services sector... [15/11/09]

Stats SA deputy director-general of economic statistics Rashad Cassim said the figure represented a turning point in the economy, after three consecutive quarters of contraction. But he warned it should be treated with caution.

"It is a seasonally adjusted quarterly change of 0.2 percent, which has been annualised (multiplied by four), which exaggerated the trend," he said. [29/11/09]

prostitutes and cannabis farmers saved South Africa from the recession but are persecuted for it.

how does that add up?

@Robyn. For each prostitute arrested how many people are arrested for pimping them and how many for trafficking them? None. The prostitutes are just arrested, harrassed and released. What is the point of this, other than being able to moralise to the rest of us whilst picking on the weak? I myself don't frequent prostitutes, BUT I would rather they be housed in one area of the city where the police are in charge than have them standing out on the Main Road where they are afforded no protection at all. Will arresting them stop them? Does it? Really?

No-one has succeeded in 'housing' prostitutes in one part of any city anywhere in the world, nor has the control of organised crime of this practice been lessened. For this reason Amsterdam has set on a course of radically reducing the number of brothels and introducing a raft of new restrictive rules regarding the sex trade. The only place where street prostitution has been reduced is in Sweden. The main function of the police is to target illegal activity. They generally dont bother at all with legal activity for obvious reasons. The only time they will respond is when an unlawful act has occurred, after it has happened. There seems to some sort of strange idea that police will act as some sort of bodyguards for prostitutes, somehow waiting for an illegal to act. This cant and wont happen. All that happens when you legalise prostitution is you hand it over to the control of various criminal grouping whether it is the gangs on the Cape Flats or the Russian, Thai, Nigerian or home grown players in the trade. Strip clubs have already been used as a facade to traffic Eastern European women into the country and little has been done to stop it. It gives one a taste of what would happen if prostitution were legalised.

Great article. I really support the radical change of thinking, in that sex work is not just another necessity of society but rather, as stated, as an extension of male violence. So much of that rings true in South Africa, doesn't it.

I think in practice the approach may (or rather, will) fail in South Africa on the third element: "a comprehensive social-service fund aimed at helping any prostitute who wants to get out". Even if something like this is put into place, I think it would rather encourage women to become sex workers as it perhaps will provide them that crucial way out which could have prevented them becoming sex workers in the first place. Sadly, that is exactly what is needed for those that do want to get out.

It is quite amazing how sofa scientists like Marius can be utterly convinced that they know the answer to prostitution even in the face of research results by experts, experience of different systems in different countries, etc. I also see that a lot of MG readers are sofa scientists when it comes to global warming and other issues. So bloody clever! Just think how clever they get after a few beers! Man, these guys can solve all the world's problems from their armchairs!

There is one thing the article does not address, and that is the issue of male prostitution. Not only women become prostitutes. Under the Swedish model, if a woman pays a male prostitute for sex, is she considered to be exploiting him? Is it legal for male prostitutes to sell sex but illegal for women to buy sex from them? How about male homosexuals buying sex from male prostitutes? Female prostitutes may well be more common than male ones, but the notion that prostitution is fundamentally an issue of violence against women seems to me spurious and overly politically correct.

The research quoted by the writers seems to indicate that legal prostitution creates a whole new set of problems, e.g. that brothel owners perfectly legally but very immorally entice foreign women to come and work for them, and then exploit them and reduce them to wage slavery. This is indeed a problem, but I'm not sure the Swedish model is a fair solution. When there is gross inequality between men and women, surely the solution is to ensure equality rather than make men less equal? The Swedish model might well have worked best to reduce prostitution, but it seems to do so at the cost of a new form of gender-based discrimination. Surely equal rights imply equal responsibilities? And that in turn implies that everyone should enjoy equal protection?

It seems to me there is no inherent problem in prostitution as such, except from a narrow moralistic viewpoint. The problem is discrimination, exploitation, violence against women and other disempowered people, and so on. These are not problems unique to prostitution; it happens to all genders, races and creeds in all manner of industries. It requires strict regulation, and laws that apply equally to all. What is good for the goose must be good for the gander, otherwise we have simply replaced one form of discrimination with a another.

What is truly amazing, Piet, is that everybody forget that being a prostitute is the prostitute's own choice after occupational risks have been taken into account. I fully agree that not only the prostitutes should be prosecuted, their handlers and clients should also be prosecuted as well. Having said that, anybody believing that prostitution should be a regulated "industry", please have a look on dear old SA's track record of corruption and ineffectual policing. I thought we are trying to eradicate AIDS, not actively taking part in promoting the spread of this pandemic. Then again, I would have thought that taking into account our high crime rate, that is murder, rape, armed robbery, hi-jackings, cash in transit heists which we pay through the nose for, etc, we would have more urgent problems to focus on. Apparently I'm wrong.....

Hell Piet; you must be drunk yourself if you think prostitution or weed hasn't affected your GDP or bond rate...

and your life...

@Piet. What is with the ad hom attack? If you don't like what I am saying then argue the point. As for being on my sofa? I have seen enough prostitution - controlled and uncontrolled in my world travels. Pretty much every large city I have visited has some "dodgy" area where prostitution occurs. London? Soho. Bankok? Pat Pong. Montego Bay? Negril. Of all the places I have been Amsterdam had the most grown up solution. That was 10 years ago, so things might have changed in the interim. I read New Zealand legalised prostitution in 2003 and the world didn't come to an end.

As an attorney I have a fundamental problem trying to regulate what people do with their bodies and money in their spare time. Who are you to tell these people what to do?

As usual the newspaper article cites no references. I will again have to look for these to see if the author is correctly stating the conclusions of the research, and indeed if the researchers are misinterpreting their data. The alleged reduction of prostitution in Sweden may be nothing more than it becoming more secretive. Sweden's draconian drug laws have not reduced drug use either. Presumably the UCL study provides some hypotheses for why organised crime is suddenly more interested when it is legal. Does this happen to other types of business? However when legalised it has to be regulated obviously. Licenses should be required and the police should be checking on that. In Germany can I open up shop as an alcohol peddler without permission and be left alone by the police because alcohol is legal? Can I sell cigarettes to 5 year olds (since it's a legal drug)?

Now I don't for a moment doubt that women get exploited in the prostitution business, but capitalism is all about exploiting people. There are plenty of horrible jobs out there, and without regulation many are essentially degrading and soul-destroying. Should we ban them all?

So the new policy is criminalising the buying of sex and decriminalising the selling of sex. So the solution is not to punish the people putting it out there. They get a get out of jail free card. The problem is obviously the buying part - not the selling.

Sweden is trying to have it's cake and eat it. The policy is "not sexist" because it applies to both men and women, but at the same time "prostitution is regarded as an aspect of male violence against women and children." Why couldn't they adopt a consistent approach and claim that prostitution is sexual violence? It's emotive... "the children".... but they just decriminalised the selling of sex... so what happens to a child who turns to turning tricks? Decriminalised remember. LOL.

Somewhere there is somebody sitting behind a desk that is getting paid a very large salary and probably has a PhD and this is her job.

Let’s prioritise:
Economy
Corruption & miss management of funds
Crime – 50 murders a day in South Africa
Jobless that turns to crime
Illegal immigrants


Let’s stop finding problems to create jobs but rather deal with the serious problems that are staring you in the face.

Its all just smoke and mirrors.

Firstly, Swedish law (as described above) makes it perfectly legal for a "pimp" to set up a brothel and make money of sex workers. The Swedes seem to have missed the point on sex work - there's no need to criminalise buying/selling sex.

This article states that there is a clear relationship between sex work and rape, child sexual abuse and domestic violence. That is just absurd. When a sex worker sells sex to someone, there is a clear meeting of the minds. All those other examples represent actual exploitation. There is no direct causal link between sex work and exploitation of women.

The article also fails to mention the women who actually enjoy being prostitutes. For these women (and men) prostitution is a victimless crime.

They render a valuable service because there are many people who just want the occasional sexual relief or intimacy without wanting to/having to, or being able to, commit to a long term relationship.

And while Sweden is being held up as a shining light, I personally know Swedes living in South Africa because of the oppressive style of governance imposed upon the Swedish population. It is not uncommon to be harassed by the Swedish police without recourse.

Thank you Robin, for the voice of reason. If a man just wants a bit of intimacy and he finds a partner who is happy to provide that intimacy, does it matter how the transaction is concluded? With cash, meals or even marriage?

If you tried this Swedish plan in SA we would have prostitutes protesting in the streets because the law was chasing their customers away.

Interesting and thought provoking, has it changed the language around women in Sweden as well? Language here is very derogatory in "male groups". I am not sure whether Sweden is less patriarchal now than we are. Patrriarchy demeans women and the use of language proves it.

I share IB's concern that the article cites no references, and appears to be based on axioms and the writer's opinion, not neccessarily on facts.

Few reasonable people would argue that human trafficking, violence against women and rape are all absolutely abhorrent practices.

There is also irrefutable evidence that large numbers of women who end up in prostitution have been subjected to one or more of the above.Whether that is 1% or 50% of the prostitute population appears to be unknown,

However, to imply that all prostitutes are poor and victims of violence is simply not supported by the facts and research that I have read.

The research that I have read (SWEAT in SA has some good links)indicates that many prostitutes practice their profession out of choice (a common comment runs on the lines of "I earn in 15 minutes what a general worker earns in a day).
The motivation for such sex workers has nothing to do with "the status of women in society" - the motivation is Economic, and one could IN SOME CASES infer a level of laziness (easier to work for 15 minutes that 8 hours).

There are also many shades of grey - the township girls that exchange sexual favours for money and gifts from sugar daddies - do you classify them as prostitutes?

Instead of stigmatising people that choose to use their bodies to earn a living (all athletes do this, as do dancers and performing artists)we should be ensuring that they and everyone else are protected against violence, exploitation, have access to safety, security, medical services etc.

The police and criminal justice system should concentrate on nailing the abusers, traffickers, exploiters etc where they exist further up the food chain.
The prostitutes and their clinets, no mater how unsavoury some of us may find their activities, are not the ones that should be targeted.

This strategy is used in the "war on drugs" - why not with prostitution?

In order to understand what happens in prostitution one has to look a lot further than sex trade lobby groups such as SWEAT and their generally biased so-called research, much of it designed to further their goals of an unfettered prostitution trade. Prostitution, Research and Education (Melissa Farley) did a 5 countries (later expanded to 9) which included SA - the only research of its kind in SA, I believe. To understand what happens to the women and the harm suffered during prostitution it is educational to have a look at this.

@Robyn Interesting that you run down someone else's research in such an emotive fashion. I don't suggest that prostitution is all chocolates and roses. Not at all. However, if you leave it flapping out there in the breeze on Main Road you're not dealing with the issues and the problems. The prostitution is happening whether you and I like it or not. There are brothels operational in the middle of Cape Town whether you and I like it or not. What are the working conditions at these places? Who's working there? Are they happy doing what they are doing? Are they safe? Are they being looked after? Who knows, because having prostitution illegal pushes it underground and behind closed doors.

Do you have any answers? You admit the legislation has failed, but you want more of the same. What do you suggest should happen to all the arrested people? Court? Jail? What is the point?

The Swedish experience can not be transferred directly to SA because there are cultural differences involved. I wish to agree with the authors that prostitution is inherently a destructive way of life and can not be controlled as some people think. It is imperative we find some means of removing people out of this vice. The solution lies in following the money trail.