Sex workers protest outside court as man facing six murder cases make appearance
Organisations representing sex workers have gathered outside the Johannesburg magistrate’s court where the man accused of killing six women will make his first appearance.
Members of Sisonke Sex Workers Forum stood at the entrance of the court on Tuesday morning with placards written “my work should not cost my life”, among others.
Katlego Rasebitse, the spokesperson for the organisation, said the killing of six women believed to be sex workers was a result the failure by government to decriminalise sex work.
‘We can’t rely on the police to come,” say Khayelitsha residents
Role-players in the alcohol industry, NGOs and the South African Police Service engaged residents from the Cape Metropole townships on the underlying causes of gender-based violence and femicide on Thursday.
“We have been calling for the decriminalisation of sex work for the last 20 years. Black women are being targeted not only by society but also by the police.
“We are going to use this case to make the biggest noise ever about the plight of sex workers. This is a massacre in terms of the sex work industry. It is a big blow… Women are being murdered for their survival,” Rasebitse said.
On Sunday, six bodies were discovered, one in a room inside the building in the Johannesburg inner city, another in an industrial skip bin while two others were found in separate wheelie bins. The last two bodies were found in two separate vans parked inside the building.
‘Why my sister?’: Hillary Gardee’s brother speak of pain and loss
Twenty-three-year-old Noble Gardee’s heart is broken as he mourns the death of his 28-year-old sister Hillary. Hillary Gardee went missing in Mbombela on the May 3. Four days later her body was discovered 40km away, next to a side road on the way to Sabie.
Sex workers said the “charming” young man has been fetching their colleagues every Sunday for the past six weeks and each time, none of them returned.
He allegedly used different vehicles to collect sex workers from the streets and promised a higher pay if they go with him to a place he had booked.
According to sex workers, the first woman to disappear was reported missing at the Jeppe police station but police did very little to find her.
The young man is facing six counts of murder.
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