This may sound hefty and shouting from a soap box but it is a proven fact that prohibition of what some in society regard as reprehesible, immoral and even damnable, never works. Prohibition in pre WW2 US regarding the sale of liquor did not work. It only led to an escalation in levels of crime fed by greed and violent turf battles between bootleggers and sleezy places where consumjptionm in any case flourished.

One can add also a very surprising statement of fact. It was none other than the grand apostle of the free market, Milton Friedman, who made the comment that Nixon’s prohibition of drugs would become counter productive and cause more social harm than treating the problem on its social merits / de-merits, if not as a medical or clinical problem.

I also would advocate that not only sex work be decriminalized, but that standards and stipualtions be set through legislation, preferably as adjunct of the Liquor Act, to legalize the running of Escort Agencies. What goes on on the dance floor is not “prostitution”. The ladies / men are there to entertain. But if there is a consensual agreeement they can go off premises as stipulated in the Liquor Act and behind closed doors do whatever two consensual people would of could do. Its a private matter.

It is actually a crying shame that there are such stupid politicians around as the one in question, who belittle the issue and trample human rights sensitivites through sheer thoughtlessness.

People who so easily slam around with words like “it is degrading for men and the women” to be “whores”, i.e. involved in consensual sex where a price is paid, could better think of what the US looked like under prohibition of liquor earlier on, probition of even soft drugs today.

To a large extent the trafficking of young women takes place purely on the grounds that the market for female / male sex entertainment is criminalized. It’s the women, indeed who are the sacrificial lambs for moral hypocrisy of those so eager to point fingers.

I sell my brains and body to my employer every day. Are they my clients or Johns?

I am forced to use my brain and body to pay the South African Revenue Service for the first 3 hours of each day I work. Are they my pimps?

Prostitution is no different than most of our professions!! How ironic that it’s fine to destroy our minds and bodies down a mine, slaving on a farm, in a call centre, sweeping the streets or in a whole host of platonic prostitutions.

My question is: Who here doesn’t support the sex industry?

Every time we buy goods and services advertised with some sexy chick or hunk in the media we acknowledge that sex for sale makes us feel good, and that we WANT whatever is associated with it. Basically we all want sex, and will part money for it. [some consciously and some subconsciously].

If we pay a woman for sex and film it, it is called Porn!!! (which is legal in SA under the Film and Publications Act), but when we pay a woman for sex and don’t film it we are criminally charged and named and shamed as ‘Sex Offenders’ under the new Sexual Offences Act.

Here is a thought for further debate. If the Film and Publications Board authorises the selling of sex in Porn, they are effectively advocating prostitution and are in effect accomplices in a crime. After all, the porn stars were paid to have sex, weren’t they?

· `… because we hear of many rapes because people don’t have access to them, women,” is George Lekgetho (ANC) referring to the women or the practise as a commodity? I won’t even comment on the rape part!

· “You cannot attach a price to the deepest union between a man and a woman and link it to our tax base,” maybe Sydney Opperman (DA) forgot that the topic in dispute was legalising sex-work for 2010, not marriage or boyfriend/girlfriend relationship!

It is funny how politicians usually make the mistake of commenting on complex issues they have minimal insight on, they should try consulting with official office bearers who have expertise on these matters or act like celebrities in such situations by sticking to `no comment`, it would save them a great deal of embarrassment.

Now the topic on discussion, I also think decriminalising sex work would prohibit physical violence (by police, pimps and their clients), by law they will be protected, unlike now, if they are beaten by a client – the client will walk free, the worker will go to jail all bruised up with nothing and the pimp will run with the commission (if the service was pre-paid).

Society just has to get off its high horse because most actually use the service, there would have never been a supply if there was no demand!

I support Christopher Gololo (ANC) when he said the matter should be “thrown to the public” to debate.

These woman support families, pay for school fees, support unemployed family members and actually pay for technikon and varsity fees to further their lives by selling sex … yes SEX.

Some even want to do the right thing and pay tax, but the State does not recognise their profession and can’t accept their money.

Since when is sex an evil or immoral thing? Every day the media bombards us with the most macabre images of victims or crime, starving populations and casualties of war for huge profits under the old adage, ‘If it bleeds, it reads!’. This exploitation of humans (us readers) is in my opinion worse than two consenting adults simply having sex (something totally natural to post pubescent human behaviour)

Have any ‘real’ reporters actually taken the time to study this sector in depth and actually interviewed any of the working ladies or owners of escort agencies regularly visited by many of our city’s workforce, elite and rich and famous?

The answer is NO!

Think for a minute …

- Adult Movies are now legal.
- Strip Clubs are now legal.
- Gambling is now legal.
- Interracial marriages and relationships are now legal.
- Shebeens are now legal.
- Abortions are now legal.
- Satanism is now Legal.
- Civil Unions among homosexuals are now legal.

What’s the big deal with sex between two consenting adults for money? I’ve been on many dates where I have had to fork out heaps of cash on movies, club entry fees, dinner and drinks to court a lady, with the eventual result of sex and a new friendship with someone who turned out not to be my type anyway. I am sure most modern men will resonate with me that there isn’t really much difference in the whole modern darting scene and hiring a prostitute if one breaks it down to the nuts a bolts. At least with encounters with prostitutes, there are no strings attached, no difficult break-ups and we both have mutual benefits according to our specific needs.

In the past the old government discouraged and outlawed prostitution for two fundamental reasons. First, they wanted to discourage white men from being tempted to have sex with predominantly black and coloured woman applying the trade at the time, because it was ‘verkeerd’. The second, more deeply routed reason was the NG Kerk’s cosy partnership with the State in setting our so-called moral standards. The same guys who preached God-sanctioned apartheid on Sundays, while their congregation fiddled with the maids after dark.
If sex with prostitutes is claimed to give rise to rape, why have no owners of strip clubs or adult stores been arrested for rape. Yet, how many church leaders have been arrested for molesting young boys?

Instead of reporting from some hypothetical parabola, based on assumptions and presumptions, why doesn’t the fifth estate (press) do us all a favour and liberate SA by overcommnig this last hurdle of our shameful prejudice.

Legalisation provides a facade behind which organised criminal networks can operate with virtual impunity. The ability of police to enter, search and interview witness in this kind of regime is severely curtailed.

Remember one is dealing with a combination of criminal/mafia type groupings – and no-one testifies against organised crime (remember Ulianitski anyone?); buyers wanting anonymity (80% are married or have partners) and very vulnerable women/girls.

All parties concede that the illegal sex trade is out of control in Australia where prostitution has been legalised in Victoria and decriminalised in NSW. A survey conducted by the Adult Business Association of NSW alleged that illegal premises operating outnumbered legal premises by 4 to 1. The survey was conducted as a result of fears of being undercut by the skyrocketing illegals, many of which used women brought in from Thailand, Korea and China.

Ironically, the few convictions for trafficking have been of holders of legal brothel licences. The legal holders also owned illegal brothels and would circulate the girls between them.

Most people would be aware by now, I guess, that the Netherlands, where prostitution was legalised in 2000, is more or less embarking on a reversal of this policy. Brothel windows are being replaced by upmarket boutiques and a raft of new restrictive measures are being brought in.

Legalisation/decriminalisation is a seductive fantasy but it just does not work. It rather seems to amplify all the problems associated with prostitution and not reduce them. Robyn

I also don’t think the poor MP who has been so ridiculed over what he said was so wrong. I think his only problem was having to express himself in a language that is not his own and having his logic severley compromised by his cultural upbringing. I think people need to learn to be more tolerant of this sort of thing especially when it’s clear that the person concerned is trying to see the way through the smoke-screen created by their culture.

The country is having a serious outbreak in the economically active sector. look at many taxi ranks and you see many young girls who curry favour with drivers for a quick buck, is that not prostitution by another name?

Health wise ,revenue wise and tourism wise we would not have Sir Alex Ferguson apprehensive when Man United have to visit these shores.