At last week’s ANC Women’s League conference Nkoana Mashabane bemoaned the fact that women were still not being elected into positions of premiers, municipal managers and secretaries… Why? Because women and girl children are still elected to be prostitutes!
What kind of equality is this, that men still call the shots? Woman’s strings are still being pulled even after 21 years of democracy and equality. One would have thought that our democracy has come of age, but no! Even though 50 000 South Africans have signed petitions against the motion to decriminalise prostitution, we are still being oppressed by laws that we don’t want. How can the Government still turn a deaf ear to the voice of the people and offer our nation’s children to prostitution, drugs and poverty? If we, the mothers of this nation, had been in Government this would never have happened.
These white-dominated organisations like SWEAT have no compassion on poor black woman. Legalisation of prostitution will not solve the problem of poverty. Mandela’s legacy has shown us a way out of oppression; be educated to become doctors, advocates, teachers and chartered accountants. Why must we still bow the knee to these people abroad? How can they tell us what to do on our own turf? We don’t want to be trapped into more violence and exploitation! What is bad for the body, is bad for the heart. It is no different to when apartheid laws were pushed down our throats.
Now Amnesty International is pushing its laws down our throats! We simply have had enough.
The age of consent was recently brought down to 12 years, without any consultation with us, the parents. Even the Nkosi’s and Indunas have not been respected, their voice has been silenced. We are still oppressed by the views of a few whites who dictate what should be done in our communities and with our girl children. Now children are not even safe at school, or on their way home from school. Democracy, our hope and dreams for our children to excel is going down the drain.
Here are ten points why we find it very difficult to swallow the bitter consequences should the legalisation and decriminalisation of prostitution be pushed down our throats:
Legalisation / decriminalisation of prostitution:
1) does not only decriminalise the women in it, but it decriminalises the whole sex industry.2) promotes human trafficking.3) does not control the industry, it expands it.4) increases clandestine, illegal and street prostitution.5) increases child prostitution.6) does not protect women in prostitution. It creates more risks and harm for women from already violent customers and pimps.7) increases the demand for prostitution. It encourages men to buy women for sex in wider and a more permissible range of seeming socially acceptable settings.8) does not promote women’s health. It is the male buyers who can and do originally transmit disease to the women they purchase.9) does not enhance women’s choice.10) is against what women/girls who have been trafficked want.
One woman said: “No way. It’s not a profession. It is humiliating, and exposes me to violence from the men’s side.”
We have researched all these points above, and proved them to be legitimate. But we keep on asking ourselves, why then do legislators still want to force prostitution down our throats? Could it perhaps be that some individuals in high places want to get rich by thus legally exploiting our children?
Like to join the 50 000 signatures? Download petition below and circulate it through your community at grassroots level. Please post, email or fax back to us.
Click Here to Download and Print Petition Forms
Click This Lik to Read More: The Vice President of a group that officially advised a top UN body on its prostitution policy was jailed earlier this year for sex trafficking. So why is Amnesty International about to adopt their policy proposals?
