Written by: Dr Pearl Kupe
Article source: JOY! Magazine
On December 9th 2022, the SA government sent out a draft bill that proposed the legalisation of prostitution. The public was given up until January 31 to make comments and submissions on the said bill.
Implications of legalising prostitution
Prostitution is not an isolated activity – it is part of a well-established crime syndicate operation. Along with prostitution comes drugs, gender-based violence, and other related criminal activities. The majority of prostitutes and their pimps are addicted to drugs. They take narcotics to enable themselves to endure the activities they indulge in. Drugs also invite and incite violence. Such violence is usually directed against the prostitute. Legalising prostitution will not stop the violence, but will merely enable and legalise it. Legalising prostitution will endanger the lives of prostitutes even more than is already the case. Evidence shows that trafficking statistics increase measurably when prostitution is legalised.
Trafficking statistics globally
Traffickers exploit 25 million people annually, according to the disrupthumantrafficking.com website. Victims are used for the profit of their captors as the industry averages $150 billion a year and continues to grow. UNICEF reports that most trafficking victims are girls between 5-15 years of age, and approximately half of these children are from Africa.
Trafficking in South Africa
According to National Centre for Justice and Rule of Law, 2003, as well as the 2008 International Office of Migration (IOM) Internal Trafficking report, trafficking victims are often recruited from rural areas or informal settlements and later transported to the urban centres of Johannesburg, Cape Town, Pretoria, Bloemfontein, and Durban. The provinces of the Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga, and Limpopo are the main ‘recruitment’ areas for victims of trafficking.
Males are not exempt from being trafficked and prostituted – they are increasingly being targeted. According to the IOM, boys under 18 are increasingly being lured into sexual exploitation and used for pornography.
According to the 2008 report, the organised prostitution and trafficking crime syndicates operate mainly in Pretoria, Port Elizabeth, Johannesburg, and Bloemfontein, and they mainly focus on trafficking local, black South African females into the sex trade.
The profile and modus operandi of a trafficker
In the last year, I have personally been approached by ‘would be traffickers’ at least six times. In some instances, these men approached my daughter, publicly, in shopping malls when we were together. I have used my experience as a former senior criminal prosecutor and former International Labour Organisation staff member to draw up this profile of a trafficker.
The trafficker:
- Is usually a stranger
- Is usually male and sounds ‘friendly’
- Often speaks with a foreign accent
- Scouts for victims in public places, especially shopping malls
- Targets females and tells them how ‘beautiful they are’
- Will offer an intended target the opportunity to ‘model’ or offer them employment
- Will ask their intended victim to meet them somewhere (usually an isolated place) ‘to talk’
- May also propose to enter into a relationship with their ‘victim’. The traffickers often fake being in a romantic relationship, only to reveal their true colours and intent to traffic or prostitute their victim later on in the relationship
Be careful online
Traffickers also look for victims on social media and will employ the same tactics online. They make fake social media profiles to lure and entice their victims into meeting them in an isolated place, after which they kidnap and hijack.
Tips to avoid being trafficked:
- Avoid walking in malls and public areas alone
- Travel in groups, where possible, especially if you use public facilities such as bathrooms
- Be alert and pay attention to your surroundings when in public
- If you see anyone, especially a male, who looks like they are following you – try to get to a public place and alert any official you can see
- Never allow yourself to be lured to a solitary place or a place of isolation
What can parents & communities do?
- Educate your community
- Help to distribute information on trafficking
- Organise trafficking sensitisation groups at your schools and churches. Invite a Global Forum of Women Entrepreneurs (GFWE) representative to come and give a sensitisation talk and presentation on trafficking
- Report suspicious activities and brothels to the police
- Watch and pray over your families and your children
- Pray for the salvation of prostitutes and pimps, and for righteousness and justice to prevail in the land
Please share this!
Please share this information widely. It may help to save one or many lives. God has not given us a spirit of fear, but He has also instructed us to remain alert and vigilant because the enemy walks around like a roaring lion, seeking those whom he may devour.
Say no to legalised prostitution! Say no to trafficking! Ke Nako!
Click here to KEEP UPDATED on the latest news by subscribing to our FREE weekly newsletter.
Date published: 12/03/2023
Dr Pearl Kupe – attorney and consultant to world leaders / international organisations. Pearl is the international president of the Global Forum for Women Entrepreneurs. Email pearl.kupe@gmail.com or visit pearlkupe.co.za
DISCLAIMER
JOY! News is a Christian news portal that shares pre-published articles by writers around the world. Each article is sourced and linked to the origin, and each article is credited with the author’s name. Although we do publish many articles that have been written in-house by JOY! journalists, we do not exclusively create our own content. Any views or opinions presented on this website are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the company.
