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 Prostitutes fear 2010 clean-up
    November 20 2009 at 01:20PM Get IOL on your
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Jabulisile works the streets in Hillbrow, a rough area normally avoided by tourists, but just a stone's throw from one of the World Cup stadiums that she hopes will bring in visitors looking for sex.

"The World Cup will be good for business," said the 48-year-old, who said she turned to prostitution to feed her two children.

Every day, her work brings the risk of arrest - for her and her clients.

She hopes the authorities will let her work in peace during the World Cup, which runs June 11 to July 11, when she dreams of earning enough to build a little nest egg that would let her leave prostitution.
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'The police are harassing us, they ask for money'
"I am going to quit after the World Cup. I won't be a sex worker until 65," she said.

But Jabulisile could be disappointed. Despite calls to decriminalise prostitution, South Africa could instead try to crack down.

In September, Cape Town set up a vice squad tasked with "cleaning up" the city's brothels and prostitutes - a move applauded by religious and family groups.

"There is quite a sense of religious and sexual moralism on the subject that does not help in term of public health and human rights," said Marlise Richter, a researcher who collaborates with sex worker advocacy groups.

"Making sex work more invisible makes it harder for sex workers to negotiate safer sex, and it will have greater influence on HIV prevalence."

South Africa already has the world's biggest HIV caseload, with 5,7 million of its 48 million people infected. An estimated 45 percent of prostitutes have the disease, according to a 1998 study.

Branding their work as a crime also leaves prostitutes vulnerable to abuse from their clients, pimps, and the police, Richter added.

"The police are harassing us, they ask for money," Jabulisile said.

"We give the money, and if we don't, they sleep with us.


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