Violent clients, police harassment, and stigma are just some of the main reasons sex workers and the NGOs that collaborate with them are fighting for the South African government to decriminalise the trade.
Sex work has been criminalised in South Africa since 1957 under the Sexual Offences Act, which bans prostitution, brothels, and criminalises anyone who lives off the proceeds of sex work. More restrictive legislation was introduced in 2007 which criminalized the buying of sex.
A report by Human Rights Watch released this month found that criminalization drives sex workers underground where they are often forced to work in unsafe conditions, harassed by the police, and are unable to report rape, assault, or other forms of criminal activity for fear of being prosecuted themselves.
Sex work has been here since my mother, since their mothers and their grandmothers and it’s not gonna change. This industry has been here before us, before you, so I want those who are non-sex workers to just stop judging us. We chose to do this. It’s my body. You can’t tell me what to do.
However, in a country with a 29% unemployment rate and few economic opportunities for those without tertiary qualifications, criminalization has not deterred people from turning to sex work to support their families. Read more