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PREPARING SOUTH AFRICA FOR THE WORLD |
Moves to legalise the sex industry for the 2010 World Cup should be fiercely opposed. That was the outcome of a multi-national conference focusing on the impact of the 2010 World Cup on trafficking of women and children. Lesley Ann Foster, the conference host and director of the Masimanyane Women's Support Centre, says the World Cup has brought this issue sharply into focus. Project 2010 asked her…  Every four years when the World Cup is staged, prostitution is a controversial issue. In the case of South Africa, there are already divisions over whether it should be legalised. How did delegates react to this issue? The majority of the delegates are activists working in the area of preventing violence against women. Most of them are not in favour of decriminalising prostitution. We say women engaged in prostitution must be protected because of their extreme vulnerability. The majority - there were different perspectives - don't want women to be decriminialised. But that doesn't apply to the buyers of these services - we don't want them to be decriminalised. If prostitution is criminalised for 2010, do you think our courts and the judicial system would be able to cope with foreigners who are committing a crime by sleeping with prostitutes? Whether the courts can cope is not the issue. The issue is how we protect women. We are launching a campaign to deal with the trafficking, What our government must do is strengthen the borders to identify women and children who are being trafficked. There must be programs in other countries where women are being trafficked from. We are forming international alliances to raise awareness and alert men to the fact that coming to the World Cup means they must not engage in prostitution. We must alert them to the fact that they are being watched. In the build-up to the 2006 World Cup in Germany, there were major concerns that there would be a major increase in human trafficking - particularly of young women from Eastern Europe who would work as prostitutes. This didn't seem to materialise, so why should South Africa be any different? It didn't happen because there was an enormous concerted international campaign - including radio and televison ads - highlighting the issue. All the consulates were alerted and warned to be be extra vigilant when granting visas. It wasn't just an accident. Millions were thrown at this by women's organisations and Human Rights organisations and this is exactly what we are doing now. There must be an awareness. Girls are being told go to South Africa and work for 2010. They are being duped - when they get here, their passports are taken away and we all know what happens then. What is the next step for your support centre? We think we have secured a donor and we are setting up an international support group. We will campaign throughout 2009 to alert communities in South Africa and around the continent and the rest of the world that this is a major problem. more interviews...
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