With only days to go to the World Cup, calls for the Government to place a moratorium on all arrests of sex workers for the duration of the tournament and beyond continue to go unheard.

"We anticipate the already high levels of violence against sex workers to continue during the World Cup and believe that the unlawful arrests and sexual harassment by police will definitely increase as they try to keep the streets 'clean'," says Vivienne Lalu of the Sex Worker's Education & Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT), speaking on behalf a number of non-governmental organisations including the SA National Aids Council Women's Sector (SANAC).

SWEAT and SANAC Women's Sector have sent letters to the Ministries of Police and Justice requesting them to develop and implement a plan but all have gone unacknowledged and unanswered.

Recent judgments from our Courts indicate support for the rights of sex workers. On the 20th of April 2009 the Cape Town High Court granted SWEAT an interdict instructing the police to stop arresting sex workers unlawfully. And only last week the Labour Appeal Court in the Kylie case granted sex workers the right to protection of the Labour Relations Act.

"It is apparent that the current legal framework does not work," says Stacey-Leigh Manoek, an attorney with the Women's Legal Centre. "All the signs indicate that decriminalisation of sex work is the best legal model. We are requesting the moratorium until the law reform process runs its course."

"It is no secret that sex workers are vulnerable to police violence and bribery of a sexual nature," says Lalu. "And it's not just the police which are a problem. They are often unable to access health services because of the stigma associated with their profession".

Information supplied by SWEAT