Riled residents take on street sex and crime
Pet snakes on hand in Primrose clean-up operation
The minute we started engaging the way we are, we took away the Johns’ opportunity to stop and pick up the chicks
● “Brute Force”, “Spider One” and “Princess” climb out of their bakkie, adjust their bulletproof vests and start scouring a street in Primrose, east of Johannesburg, for purple condoms.
This time, they did not bring their pet snakes to scare off sex workers. Tonight their weapon is a strobe light, which they shine on couples romping in cars, a strategy that has many a time seen a flustered naked man jump out into the street.
“The hookers hate us, the pimps hate us, the drug okes hate us. It’s just killing their business. Everything is going down. And the residents are going, ‘Wow’!” says Bruce, code-named “Brute Force”, about the successes of their 87-member community policing forum that has been working every night for the past 843 days to reduce crime and sex work on their streets.
Bruce, who did not want to give his surname, is one of a group of the forum’s members who invited a Sunday Times team to accompany them on patrol on Wednesday evening.
At least one patroller was armed with a gun. They use their code names when communicating via radio with a volunteer controller who tracks their patrol-car locations and communicates with the police if there is any crime. They refer to the sex workers as “flowers”.
“The minute we started engaging the way we are engaging, we took away the Johns’ opportunity to stop and pick up the chicks,” said Bruce, a burly middle-aged man.
Forum head Tracy Enslin said their“take back our street campaign” had seen the number of sex workers standing outside houses and on residential roads drop from about 60 a day to 15.
It has not been easy, though. Enslin recently received a death threat from a pimp while patrolling with her co-members. “We were nine patrollers. He informed me and all other patrollers that he will find us and kill our families.”
Enslin opened a case on March 23 after receiving the death threat. But she says she is not scared. “We are a family. We have each other’s backs.”
Estate agent Max Katz, who lives in Primrose, said: “As an estate agent I can assure you that the presence of sex workers has severely devalued the area’s property prices and appeal.”
Enslin said the sex workers “wear very see-through or revealing clothing without underwear, sit on the pavements with their legs open, or expose their breasts or vaginas to you as you drive past or pull into your driveway”.
But the policing forum’s unorthodox methods have landed it in court.
The Sex Worker Education and Advocacy Task Force (Sweat) approached the Johannesburg High Court in March for an interdict to stop the forum from harassing and assaulting sex workers and trying to drive them from the area. Sweat argued it was against their constitutional rights to dignity and safety.
Johannesburg High Court Judge Cassim Sardiwalla instructed the sex workers and the forum to meet and find a solution. The agreement is still being ironed out but is ex- pected to be finalised this week.
Sex workers claimed under oath that patrollers chased them with snakes and dogs and mounted the curb with their cars to get them to move off the pavement.
Enslin, a petite blonde, denied chasing sex workers with snakes, but did say forum members brought their pet snakes to a “community meet-and-greet”.
Ward councillor Wendy Morgan said crime would be out of control if not for the forum. Gauteng Community Safety department spokesman Ofentse Morwane said the Primrose policing initiative had scored higher than other neighbourhood groups in bringing crime down.
Police spokesman Sergeant Styles Maome said police had a “good relationship” with the Primrose forum. “They are not vigilantes and they help to reduce crime in our area.”
He confirmed that police were investigating a death threat against Enslin.