This trade has been going on for many years in that area, mainly during daylight.
An substantial number of women, guarded by men on this piece of undeveloped land, sell their bodies on a daily basis between as early as 9am to 5pm, regardless of the weather.
The Ekurhuleni Metro is known to act quickly against any person who occupies land illegally or trades illegally on council land, but it seems to be a different case when it comes to this business.
DA ward 32 branch chairperson Marius de Vos said he ran a petition on July 18, next to the Hyperama, to draw the attention of the municipality to removing these people from the area, to no avail.
“I have submitted the petition to the ward 32 councillor, Johan Hendricks, who, in turn, also wrote a letter to the MMC for Health in the Ekurhuleni council,” he added.
“Until today, the councillor has not received any response in this regard.”
De Vos said that one would reckon that since “we are celebrating the month of women, a caring and responsive local government would seize the moment to engage meaningfully with these ladies and men in order to redirect their skills and energies into safe, healthy and proper entrepreneurial activities”.
He is worried that if the trade goes unchecked and unchallenged it will be as if the government is tacitly giving people the green light to invade state-owned land and conduct illegal practices on it.
“This practice also has the potential to attract more women to the area, claiming that they are unemployed and, therefore, that selling their bodies is justifiable in the wake of making ends meet,” de Vos added.
“Even though the current economic conditions are dire, we cannot allow any form of employment to erode morals in society.”
He said that a light commercial vehicle is being used daily to transport some of the sex workers.
“Something worth mentioning is that these ladies sell their bodies for as little as R10.
“They also have no water and toilet facilities to wash themselves after sexual intercourse. The health of these ladies is severely compromised in the name of the only economic opportunity available to them.”
The metro has been contacted, but no comment had been received at the time of going to press.
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