SWEAT disagrees that Vice Squad does good on CPT streets

By Jurina Nkwazi
7 August 2010

Around 12 trafficking victims has been rescued over the past year said The City of Cape Town’s Vice Squad on Friday.

The unit was set up specifically to enforce by-laws on the city’s streets.

This week a 25-year-old woman approached police officer asking for help. The squad have handed the trafficking victim over to the Hawks for a full investigation.

“The woman was lured to Cape Town from Johannesburg by a man who offered her a job,” said the unit’s spokesperson Neil Arense.

He said the woman was flown down to Cape Town to work in a gentleman’s shop, but upon arrival she was given heroine and sent to work on the streets. She’s also now three months pregnant.

Meanwhile, sex workers’ rights group SWEAT Vivian Lalu said the unit is doing more harm than good.

Lalu said cases like these are rare because of the distrust between police and sex workers. In our experiences, and the report back that we have gotten, they are arresting sex workers far more often than what they are assisting them.

“The only way to offer aid to sex workers is to decriminalise prostitution,” she said.