 Liesl Gerntholtz, acting deputy executive director for programme at Human Rights Watch, said “Sex workers in South Africa face arrest, detention, harassment, and abuse from police, which also deters them from reporting rape or other brutal attacks against them.”

There are numerous allegations of members of the South African Police Service committing acts of violence and abuse against sex workers.70 per cent of sex workers who approached the Women's Legal Centre to report a violation said that they had experienced police abuse in some form, including beating and rape.In an interview, one sex worker in Cape Town said