Protest against murder of sex workers

In the most recent incident, the body of Carmen Williams, 30, was found under a bridge in Woodstock on 2 September. She was eight months pregnant.

A 19-year-old sex worker Shemise Gordon also known as “Klientjie” was found beaten and stabbed to death in Kenilworth on 2 August.

Anita Mambumba, 38, died from a head injury in Khayelitsha on 3 August.

Sonja Pietersen, 22, was shot dead in Heathfield and Anisa Adams, 25, was found murdered in Loop Street in the city centre on 28 July.

Former sex worker, 56-year-old Angeline de Bruin, was among more than 50 protesters from Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT), Sonke Gender Justice, Sisonke and the Treatment Action Campaign(TAC), who staged an unannounced protest outside the Western Cape Commission on Gender Equality (CGE) offices on 5 September.

The protest was to highlight the deaths of sex workers killed in the past two months and to call for action on the decriminalisation of sex workers.

De Bruin, who became a sex worker about 30 years ago to support her family, says she is still traumatized from years of being the victim of abuse and discrimination.

“This all started years ago during apartheid when police treated us sex workers like animals. I chose to become a sex worker when I was 22 years old. Sex workers are easily abused because people, including the police, know they are vulnerable,” she says.

“We get stigmatized by the community, and you get brutalized by the police”

In November 2012, the Women’s Legal Centre lodged a formal complaint on behalf of the advocacy and activist groups which explained and set out systemic human rights violations that sex workers experienced daily.

It also asked the CGE to investigate and to take action. However, there has been no confirmed response on a way forward nearly two years later.

This protest also comes as the trial of artist Zwelethu Mthethwa is due to start in the Western Cape High Court on 10 November. Mthethwa is accused of murdering 23-year-old Nokuphila Kumalo. She was found badly beaten in Woodstock in the early hours of 14 April 2013.

On Friday, the advocacy groups gathered outside the commission’s offices in Adderley Street in the city centre while they sang and held up posters which read: ‘Investigate violations of sex worker human rights!’ and ‘Gender Commission delays = Sex workers’ disappearances’.

Several leaders of the four organizations, including De Bruin, managed to get into the building to hand over a memorandum with a list of their demands.

In the memorandum, the organisations are calling for: investigation of human rights violations towards sex workers; urgent national public hearings to be held that ensure the voices of sex workers are heard; decriminalization of sex work; legislature that prevents police and the state from using condoms as evidence against sex workers; and for the CGE to support and facilitate sex worker sensitization training for the police.

The commission has until noon on 12 September to formally respond to the memorandum.

Thabisa Ngada, CGE Western Cape manager, accepted the memorandum from the group and promised to deliver it to her superiors.

Organisation leaders singing outside the door of the Commission for Gender Equality offices before handing over a memorandum of their demands. Photo by Barbara Maregele.

De Bruin later told GroundUp how she was forced to endure verbal and physical abuse because she had no support from the law as a sex worker.

“Years ago I was standing in the road when two police officers came. I showed them I was going to stand up for my rights. The one lifted up his hand in front of me and his partner took off his watch so he could hit me. I’ve been arrested so many times for just trying to work,” she says.

De Bruin recalls the night she was forced to beg the police to allow her to get one customer so she could get money for something to eat.

“I was crying because I didn’t eat for two days, but they weren’t merciful. I don’t have children of my own, but there are those in my family I have to support, including my brother. Sex workers get abused because they know they are vulnerable,” she says.

De Bruin says the decriminalization of sex work could have prevented the deaths and disappearances of some of her friends.

“Sex workers are human beings standing out there trying to support themselves and their family despite the risk of being arrested by police. If sex work is decriminalized, so many things can be avoided. We get stigmatized by the community, and you get brutalized by the police. It needs to stop now,” she says.

During the protest, Sonke Gender Justice’s Marlise Richter said she was positive the display of solidarity between the organisations will coax the commission into making a commitment to their demands.

“We met with them a few times over the past two years and they said they will set up public hearings for these human rights violations. This has not happened yet. We met with them again a few weeks ago and they made the commitment about the terms of reference and to meet again, which we didn’t do,” she says.

TAC volunteer Lumkile Sizila says: “We as a human rights organisation can’t just focus on HIV/AIDS. We need to support them and condemn these acts of abuse. We are tired of government institutions not acting for the communities. We will support them with more joint events.”

Bafana Kumalo, a senior programme specialist at Sonke Gender Justice, says the aim is to put pressure on the legislature to ensure that the law is fast tracked in parliament.

“Another sex worker was killed this week which is a major concern. With the lacuna around the (proposed) law that ensures when sex workers practice, they will be protected by law. It creates conditions for people to prey on sex workers. We think they (commission) should do better,” he said.

In a letter sent to the organisations soon after the demonstration on 5 September, CGE responded positively to the demands. The commission however wanted an apology for the negative impression created during the protest. It also said the complaints are “being dealt with [with] the utmost priority”, and attached CGE’s letter to the South African Law Reform Commission requesting a meeting.

The commission and the organisations’ steering committee will meet on Tuesday.