23 June,2009 09:09 AM IST | | AFP
With hundreds of thousands of tourists expected in South Africa for the 2010 World Cup, a new debate has erupted over legalising prostitution in a country with the world's largest AIDS epidemic.
Legal experts have already suggested proposals to legalise prostitution, saying police would be freed to focus on serious crime instead of petty vice a position that has won support among some police officials.
Kim (35) a transgendered sex-worker from Cape Town is familiar with the challenges of prostitution in South Africa, where reports of bribery and rape by police and other human rights violations are rife.
"I think (decriminalisation) would benefit sex workers. At the moment sex work is not being recognised as a career and sex workers' human rights are being violated," she said.
Advocates for sex workers say that the existing system simply allows criminals to regulate the trade.
"Currently the way it would take place in the World Cup it would be regulated by criminals. It is a window of opportunity for criminals," said Eric Harper, director of the Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce.
