Any opinions??

Cosatu has called for prostitution to be decriminalised and unionised in a draft document due to be discussed at the union's 10th conference in Midrand on September 21. The union even went so far as to say that sex work should be 'part of the broader campaign of job creation'.

However, in the long run, Cosatu hopes sex work will die a natural death as 'the struggle for socialism to change social and economic conditions as well as mindsets will eliminate the excesses of sex work and, in the long run, eliminate sex work in our society'.

Cosatu's position is at odds with that expressed last week by the National Interfaith Leadership Council, a religious movement linked to President Jacob Zuma.

The council also wanted to revisit laws legalising abortion and same-sex marriages.

In a discussion paper released three months ago, the South African Law Reform Commission proposed that prostitution be decriminalised and regulated.

Cosatu said it would like to add its voice to the debate, and has encouraged its affiliates to do the same.

It said 'the proliferation of sex work (should be) part of the broader campaign of job creation, (the) basic income grant, et cetera, to alleviate poverty'.

The government has promised to create half a million new job opportunities by December.

Cosatu believes itself and its affiliates 'should do education work and raise awareness to do away with stigma and change perceptions about sex workers'.

It also said organisations like the Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce (Sweat), 'who are trying to educate and organise sex workers', should be supported.

A number of ANC leaders have expressed support for the decriminalisation of prostitution, while the South African National Aids Council, headed by Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, recently said it wanted sex worker bodies to participate in its meetings.

Cosatu's national conference on gender in June noted that sex work had a 'devastating impact' on families and communities.

It said sex work was on the increase owing to high 'unemployment and underemployment' levels, and would become even worse because of the world economic recession and the 2010 Fifa World Cup.

Cosatu also expressed concern about child prostitution and human trafficking.

National Interfaith Leadership Council head of secretariat John Lamola could not be reached for comment yesterday.

I am in favour of decriminalization. Making it legal will remove the grip crime syndicates have on certain areas of the sex industry. Regulation will reduce sex worker abuse, aid in the fight against human trafficking, under age prostitution and drugs. It can also improve health issues.

EA...

How so?

EA it won't happen in SA, in fact the whole 80 and 1990's thing being relaxed on prostituion has not worked all the countries are looking at ways to enforce stricter controls for various reasons

So where does the happy medium lie?

If u want to fuck up the fucking industry (no punn intended)then allow COSATU to get theirs claws into it!

Happen to know that place very well. The below is complete nonsense, unsupported by any real life experience.

Germany

>* The overwhelming majority of prostitutes are foreign and Germany is as one of the highest receivers of trafficked women for sexual exploitation.

Foreign yes, trafficked no. While in the past the number of semi legal and illegals from Russia, Brazil, Thailand was high, now the vast majority are from other EU countries and come completely voluntarily. I don't call this trafficking.


>* In a report on the Prostitution Act produced by the Federal affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth in 2007, the Federal Government conceded that the policy had failed to achieve the desired goals and had no real impact on the prostitute’s social protection.

Good joke :-). Some brothels did the test and offered the girls the choice. Employment or freelance. All wanted to freelance after they saw the tax implications ....


>* Although it has been possible to create the legal framework to enable contracts of employment to be concluded that are subject to social insurance, few have as yet made use of this option. The Prostitution Act has thus up until now also not been able to make actual, measurable improvements to prostitutes’ social protection.

See above.

>* As regards improving prostitutes’ working conditions, hardly any measurable, positive impact has been observed in practice. At most there are first, tentative signs which point in this direction. It is especially in this area that no short-term improvements that could benefit the prostitutes themselves are to be expected.

Lots of improvement. The number of clubs is now substantial, whereas earlier smaller houses dominated. Clubs are heavily regulated and watched by the police. The sheer number of girls and customers makes abuse more difficult.


>* The Prostitution Act has not recognisably improved the prostitutes’ means for leaving prostitution.

Why would they as long as business runs smoothly. Why would somebody leave an industry when the working conditions actually improved.


>* There are as yet no viable indications that the Prostitution Act has reduced crime.

Cant see the logic. Prostitution does not increase crime by itself. When organised crime is pushed out of prostitution (it was never very strong in Germany) it goes to other areas.


>* The Prostitution Act has as yet contributed only very little in terms of improving transparency in the world of prostitution. On the other hand, the fears that were partly linked to the Prostitution Act have not proved true, in particular in the area of fighting crime. The Prostitution Act has not made it more difficult to prosecute trafficking in human beings, forced prostitution and other prostitution-related violence.”

Police regularly does checks in Clubs. It has become very easy to enter a clubs (as they are legal and advertised) and check passport. Therefore trafficking is actually done.


>* On account of the decriminalisation of prostitution, police are no longer able to monitor the ‘scene’ or enter brothels as in the past to try to uncover trafficked or otherwise abused victims.

See above. In the past every prostitute was by definition a victim so it was easy to find them. Now the the majority work legally its harder to find abused women in the industry. Definitely made things worse :-)

I concur with mtraveller....

I dont think its gonna work and I really believe it will create more problems...Dont decriminalise prostitution...
it will make things very diffucult to root out the bad apples.

as EA said about Amasterdam where I read an article that the politicians and the mayor of Amsterdam have agreed that it did not improve the profession at all! Also decriminilising did not help policing the industry.

I prefer the way it is and having been around for a long time I have picked the right places to go to and will not go to clubs...

prefer the one woman house thingy and sometimes picking the regulars I know from the areas I visit.

have learned the hard way ...