On Klopper Street, near the Rustenburg Magistrate's Court, sex workers ply a brisk trade by night. The women, seemingly oblivious to the prying eyes of strangers, huddle together on the pavement and are casually approached by men.
After a brief negotiation, they sidle into the disused buildings flanking parking lots at both ends of the block. Sometimes, parked trucks obscure their proceedings, otherwise the abandoned buildings provide the requisite privacy.
The women working this nondescript stretch of urban decay are far from a carefree bunch. On Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, in particular, the sex workers and their clients are more circumspect about their liaisons because the police, working with the Greater Rustenburg Citizens' Forum for Change and the municipality's public safety department, are known to swoop on areas where they ply their trade.
The swoops, witnessed by the Mail & Guardian, are meant to humiliate both client and sex worker: they are caught literally with their pants down as they are confronted by a convoy of marked police vehicles, pepper-sprayed, assaulted and searched before being shoved into a vehicle.
In at least one case, the woman concerned never returned. At least three sex workers interviewed independently stated that one of their colleagues had died in police custody on the morning of September 22 after they were rounded up in Rustenburg's central business district the night before.
About 70 percent of sex workers have been abused by police, according to a study released in Johannesburg on Wednesday.
"The human rights abuse of sex workers in South Africa is alarming and demands immediate attention," reads the study issued by the Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce (Sweat).
"Sex workers experience violence during arrest by police officers who routinely beat them, pepper spray them and sexually assault them."
The study was based on interviews with 308 sex workers, mostly in Cape Town, by the Women's Legal Centre. The sex workers were mostly women, but included men and transgender persons.
The report included first-person narratives from people who recounted being forced to perform oral sex or being gang-raped by police officers. They reported police officers assaulting them, often with pepper spray.
Maghreb society is witnessing the latest round of protests by groups calling for the implementation of 'Islamic behaviour' in everyday life.
These demands occasionally turn into action, as in the recent alleged attack by salafists on a girl in Rabat over the length of her skirt.
In Mauritania the demands have taken a more organised form, with the creation of the "No to Pornography" movement by young people last year. The group, aiming to promote virtue and prevent vice, has organised Friday demonstrations outside mosques and marches throughout Nouakchott. Participants in the events wave signs calling for a bans on improper dress, pornography, prostitution and liquor sales.
These requests were repeated in a ten-point statement distributed at marches last week. Additional demands include the creation of "morality police", stiffer penalties for rape and other sex crimes, and a series of religious reforms to public education.
The group promised further action, stating that it would "form a legal team as soon as possible to file legal action against entities involved in disseminating pornography and debauchery in Mauritanian society".