Sex workers target pupils
Residents say the main goal is tomove the sex workers away from the school.
Sex workers operating along a stream on Vom Hagen Street in Pretoria West are now believed to be targeting school children.
The prostitution takes place in an open veld a few metres from the Hoërskool Pretoria-Wes.
The sex workers have now built small tents order to ply their trade.
Residents have been grumbling about the issue but say little action has been taken of late.
Prostitutes had been operating in the area for years, Hoërskool Pretoria Wes principal Hannlie Coetzee said this week.
“There’s a lot of them (prostitutes) just near the school and they operate anytime of the day and night,” she said.
“It has been going on for the past 15 years I have been the principal at the school.”
Police had chased them away several times but they kept on coming back.”
“The other time I even had to call my security guards to chase them away because they were in full view,” she said.
Coetzee said she had pleaded with police to remove them as she feared for her pupils.
“My kids (pupils) walk pass the bridge where they operate everyday. You don’t only find prostitutes there, nyaope boys also roam around there. There have been a number of robberies committed on the bridge,” she said.
On behalf of the CPF in the west of Pretoria, Thesigan Pillay urged police to act swiftly before the pupils became victims.
“They have their rights and we respect them but they have to take into consideration that this is a public space and children pass here.”
Pillay said crime was rampant in the area because of the prostitution, and the main objective was to move the sex workers away from the school.
“We are worried because the sex workers are preying on these kids. “
I believe that pupils shouldn’t be exposed to such things at a tender age, Pillay said.
Earlier this year, Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce (Sweat) director Sally Shackleton said the abuse of sex workers had been escalating in Pretoria West since November last year.
“This has been an ongoing problem not only in Pretoria West, but countrywide. We are very disappointed that the police have done little to ensure the safety of sex workers,” said Shackleton.
Pretoria police could not be reached for comment
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