Keith Blake, Ottery
A few days ago I saw on the news that the issue of whether prostitution must be decriminalised is to be brought before the legal bench but this time with public participation on the moral issue.
Let us first look at the definition of prostitution and it is a person, normally a woman, who sells sex for money. What is confusing at this very time is that there is a public outcry all over South Africa that men must not kill or assault women yet there is going to be allowed or entertained a public participation process about decriminalising prostitution. If prostitution is allowed then women are getting legally raped or allowing legal rape because they are doing it for the money and in this sick world the young children we are trying to defend are going to become slaves of pimps and where then is our cry of enough is enough?
Allow me please to ask the following questions to all those who are contemplating their public opinion or even our elected officials who want to bring this subject to the fore. My first question is will you allow your very own children to become prostitutes? Will you allow your wife to become a prostitute to earn extra money for the household? Will you proudly hang up in your lounge or place on social media pictures of your daughter’s busy plying her trade as a prostitute? Would you tell all your neighbours and family and friends that your daughter is making a living from prostitution and you are hoping your granddaughters will also one day hopefully become a prostitute and if your answer is no then why are you even considering or tabling this immoral subject.
For years I was in the then SA Railways Police in Table Bay Harbour and for a few years I was the commander of the squad dealing with prostitutes and I met and dealt with hundreds of them and their families as husbands came to look for wives, mothers for their daughters, grannies for their grandchildren and once a granddaughter for her granny in this issue and I saw what prostitution does to the moral grounds of women, the disrespect of women, the drugs and alcohol many consume to hide their feelings and emotions while selling their bodies to anyone as long as they were paid and many a time I had to write across a photo of a prostitute of my vast album the words ‘Deceased” and do not tell me times have changed for the oldest profession in the world. No, times have become much worse and of course let us not leave out more violent.
There are many of us praying that prostitution stays illegal and yes there must be amendments to make the Sexual Offences Act of 1957 even more stringent to deter our women from becoming sex slaves for others or for themselves.
A thought-provoking quote from Victor Hugo: “Slavery still exists, but now it applies only to women and its name is prostitution.”
