Tensions run high as sex workers threaten safety forum members
Sex workers have warned Bulwer Safety Forum members to watch their backs, saying they have no plans to move out the area.
JUST days after a mass meeting to discuss the problems local residents have encountered with the influx of sex workers in the area, four members of the Bulwer Community Safety Forum (BCSF) were verbally abused and threatened while walking along Clark Road on Friday afternoon by three sex workers standing on the pavement. .
According to Heather Rorick, chairperson of the Bulwer Community Safety Forum, she and other members were walking home along Clark Road when three sex workers called out to them in isiZulu.
“We were not on patrol or doing any BCSF duty so we were not wearing our reflector jackets. As we were walked, in the distance in front of us three sex workers were standing on the pavement by Baxter Park. The one has been working the streets in our area for long, so I recognised her. They started shouting and pointing at us. The park was full of other sex workers and vagrants at the time,” said Rorick.
She said the two men walking with them understood what was being said. “They said they were calling the young men ‘rubbish dogs’ and ‘scum’, for what they viewed as them taking white people’s side against them (the sex workers) whose skin colour was the same as theirs. They also accused the community watch members of chasing them and said they were not scared of us or the police or the courts and they were here to stay. If any of us or the community didn’t like it, we could all go, but they weren’t going anywhere. They also warned that as much as the community watch was watching them, they were watching all of us and they knew who we were and warned us to watch our backs,” said Rorick.
One sex worked turned to Rorick and warned that the women were ‘coming for her’ as she was considered the ‘mama’ of the comunity watch.
“What they don’t realise is that it is not only members of our community watch who chase them, many residents have also taken to chasing them away. This cannot continue – not even for another month – the community is mad and are fired up, especially after last Tuesday’s meetin, and they are calling for the immediate intervention of SAPS, Metro Police, the city manager’s office/ and social welfare,” said Rorick.
The incident has been noted and recorded at Umbilo SAPS.
Rorick said it was going to take the community coming together to find a solution to clearing the area of vagrants and sex workers.
“The deputy city manager said he would get back to the community in a month, but a month is way too long and the situation is way too volatile all round. Something bad is going to happen soon. We will be taking more action this week with regards to the threats made to us. We will keep the community up to date as soon as we finalise our next plan of action,” she said.
