A report on prostitution in South Africa's
tourist capital of Cape Town released Thursday recommending lifting a
ban on sex work.
The report by the Pretoria-based Institute
for Security Studies, entitled Selling Sex in Cape Town surveyed 164
sex workers out of around 1,200 in the city.
'While sex
workers are often subject to exploitative or abusive working
conditions, very few (in Cape Town) are forced to sell sex,' the
report, which was carried out in conjunction with the Cape-Town- based
Sex Worker Education and Advocacy Taskforce, found.
Most of
the prostitutes were black South African women between the ages of 24
and 28. Despite evidence of increased trafficking of women from poor
African countries such as Mozambique to South Africa to work in the sex
trade, the report's authors said sex trafficking was not a 'significant
feature' of the Cape Town sex industry.
Foreign nationals accounted for only about 5 per cent of sex workers in Cape Town.
Calling for sex work to be decriminalized and be governed by the same
laws as other occupations, the report said: 'The criminalization of sex
work means that the industry is unregulated, and this creates
conditions that allow employers to engage in practices that would be
considered unacceptable for other kinds of employment.'
Chandre Gould, a co-author of the report, emphasized the ISS was not
calling for the legalization of sex work, as this usually entailed the
creation of a legal framework for the sex industry.
'Take it off the statute books altogether,' she urged.
The report's recommendation follows several calls in South Africa over
the past year to legalize prostitution for the 2010 football World Cup
being staged in the country.
Authorities in the port city of
Durban proposed earlier this month legalizing adult entertainment
venues during the tournament, pointing to the existence of similar
facilities in Germany during the 2006 World Cup.
The city has yet to take a final decision on the matter which met with fierce opposition from opposition parties.
Last year, suspended police commissioner Jackie Selebi also proposed
legalizing prostitution for the duration of the World Cup.
