South Africa continues to criminalize sex work and prohibit other aspects of sex work. This includes criminalizing running or owning a brothel, living off of the earnings of “prostitution,” and enticing a woman into “prostitution.” Criminalization has undermined sex workers’ access to justice for crimes committed against them and exposed them to unchecked abuse and exploitation by law enforcement officials, including police officers.
South africa lockdown dates 2021 full#
In September, Ramaphosa said three bills to amend the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters), Criminal and Related Matters Act, and the Domestic Violence Act had been introduced in parliament to “fill the gaps that allow perpetrators of these crimes to evade justice and to give full effect to the rights of our country’s women and children.” He said that a public register of sex offenders with all relevant details would also be introduced. Civil society organizations have expressed concerns that GBV victims faced worsening violence and the inability to access help under the lockdown He described violence against girls and women as South Africa's “second pandemic,” after the coronavirus, and called on residents to end the culture of silence around gender-based violence and report perpetrators to the SAPS. In June 2020, following protests against the murder of Tshegofatso Pule, a 28-year-old woman whose body was found dumped in Soweto, Johannesburg, President Ramaphosa acknowledged that South Africa had among the highest levels of intimate partner violence in the world. As much as 51 percent of South African women have experienced violence at the hands of someone with whom they were in an intimate relationship. South Africa is facing a crisis of gender-based violence (GBV). In April, Police Minister Bheki Cele noted that police registered over 2,300 complaints of gender-based violence between March 27 to March 31, 2020, during the lockdown implemented to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. While the 2019 National Action Plan to combat xenophobia, racism, and discrimination marked an important step toward recognizing and addressing these abuses, it has not ensured accountability for xenophobic crimes.
In coordination with the Department of Home Affairs (DHA), police conducted abusive “documentation raids” in areas where many non-nationals reside, including by entering foreigners’ homes to verify documents and legal status while administering beatings. Victims in the Johannesburg Central Business District and Diepsloot alleged that the police then resold confiscated goods back to them. Some officials exacerbated xenophobia through inciteful rhetoric, while the South African Police Service (SAPS) and Metro Police used counterfeit goods raids as a cover to target foreign-owned shops and businesses. During the raids, police officers beat foreign shop owners and fired tear gas and rubber bullets at them. Government and law enforcement officials throughout the country not only largely failed to ensure justice for xenophobic violence, but also operated in discriminatory and abusive ways against non-nationals. South Africa continued to be plagued by widespread incidents of xenophobic harassment and attacks against foreigners by mobs during 2020.The attacks and harassment were also committed by government and law enforcement officials. Non-nationals have also been harassed verbally and physically by South Africans for being foreign and not using local languages in their daily interactions. A common and hurtful insult thrown at foreigners is the label “kwerekwere,” a derogatory slang used by Black South Africans to mean “foreigner.”
0 kommentar(er)
