SWEAT Takes Police To Court About Unlawful Arrests

SWEAT Takes Police To Court About Unlawful Arrests

SWEAT (Sex Worker Education and Advocacy Taskforce) has filed an application in the Cape High Court for an order declaring that no member of the South African Police Service in the Cape Metropolitan Area and no member of the Cape Town City Police may arrest sex workers for an ulterior purpose.

Background
This application is brought as a result of SWEAT's experience of the systematic unlawful arrest and detention of sex workers by members of the South African Police Service [SAPS] and members of the Cape Town City Police. These unlawful arrests involve members of the SAPS from Wynberg, Woodstock, Claremont and Sea Point police stations (which is why the commissioners of these stations have been included as the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh respondents in this cases).

Patterns of arrest and release
As a result of its research and its experience in providing services to sex workers, SWEAT has identified patterns consisting of sex workers being arrested, detained overnight or for the duration of a weekend, and released without prosecution. The formal reasons given for these arrests include a wide array of offences, some non-existent, some referring to inapplicable legislation.

The evidence that we have collected leads us to believe that the objects of arrest are threefold:

· To harass sex workers and to induce them to act in a way that is desired by the arrestor without their having to appear in court;
· To clear the streets of sex workers, at least temporarily; and
· To punish sex workers without recourse to the full requirements - including the constitutional and other legal protections - of the criminal justice system.

Litigation as last recourse

Bringing this legal action is not a step that SWEAT has taken lightly. For a number of years now, the organisation has attempted to intervene on behalf of sex workers who reported abuse by the police, usually in the context of arrest. Communications with the Cape Town City Police, SAPS, and Independent Complaints Directorate regarding the unlawful arrest of sex workers (including individual complaints) have not led to positive results. Since all our attempts to resolve this issue in a more constructive way have failed, we have been left with no option but to bring legal action.

SWEAT does not dispute that the SAPS and the Cape Town City Police have a mandate to combat crime and that the arrest of suspects plays an important role in fulfilling this mandate. While it is SWEAT's position that selling sex or soliciting should not be criminal offences, the current legal position is that various acts relating to sex work are criminalized and sex workers are liable to be arrested and prosecuted for these acts.

However, no-one can be arrested and detained simply for 'being' a sex worker, arrested and harassed when there is no evidence that they have committed an offence or arrested for non-existent offences to placate community members who complain about having sex workers in their neighbourhood. These actions are all unlawful, and prohibited in terms of the Constitution that guarantees everyone's rights -including those of sex workers. And it is these police actions that we are asking the High Court to stop.

Current position:

SWEAT has served papers on the respondents, who have noted their intention to defend. They now have time to prepare their papers in response to the SWEAT application.

ENDS

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