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Law to target 'customers' of the night
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Posted: 2006-10-31 22:49:47

Law to target 'customers' of the night
Barbara Cole
January 13 2006 at 11:46AM

Point prosecutors are investigating the possibility of prosecuting the men who "do business" with prostitutes. At the moment, only the sex workers themselves are prosecuted.

But now, in a bid to clean up the area, Point Community Court prosecutors Sunill Prithipal, Najma Kathrada and Cyril Ndwandwe are studying what can be done to bring the women's clients to book.

"Dealing with the sex worker industry is one of our priority tasks," said Prithipal.

And, rather than see the same prostitutes coming to court over and over again in a never-ending cycle, the prosecutors have come up with a system that will help rehabilitate those girls who want to quit the lifestyle.

Some, however, enjoy what they are doing and won't quit, they said. And many are too scared of their pimps (who come up with bail money for them) to give up the game.

Once arrested, the girls are sent to a Lifeline counsellor (herself a rehabilitated sex worker) for a brief counselling session and an assessment. A Correctional Services officer makes the recommendation about correctional service to the court.

Thirty sex workers are currently waiting to go on a correctional sentence programme with Lifeline.

To expand the programme further, the prosecutors are now forming a similar partnership with the Life-Place Care Centre mission at the Point, which aims to rehabilitate prostitutes.

The prosecutors said that there were also "lots" of transvestites in court charged with loitering. "You have to know which part of Westville prison to send them to," explained Kathrada.

However, they said that there was also a special cell at Westville for transvestites.

The prosecutors were particularly looking at targeting "crime generators" in the Point, and in addition to the sex worker trade, that also meant focusing on drugs and "tackling taverns" in a holistic way with the municipality, to check if the businesses were health and fire compliant.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&art_id=vn20060113091024668C788948

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