Sex Work Seminar on Now: ‘Because of this trade families have food’

Sex work remains illegal in South Africa but the ANC has committed to campaign for decriminalisation of the oldest profession in the world to ensure that sex workers’ human rights are upheld in terms of the Constitution.

This emerged at the KZN Legislature 2021 Sex Work Seminar that got underway in Pietermaritzburg on Friday. Members of the provincial legislature, and activists from Sisonke Gender Justice, Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Task Force (SWEAT) and Mothers for the Future who represent the country’s estimated 167000 sex workers, are attending the inaugural seminar.

According to a survey by SWEAT in 2013 there are between 120 000 and 167 000 sex workers in the country, a figure which is expected to have grown as more young women have probably entered the trade due to poverty and unemployment.

SA Human Rights Commission representative, Musa Mgenge, said that the SA Law Reform Commission had been reviewing legislation on sex work under the Sexual Offences Act of 1957, which is in conflict with the Constitution, for several years now and is under pressure to make recommendations for changes to the law.

“The ANC said it would campaign for decriminalisation of sex work.  Decriminalisng prostitution will limit the power some ruthless police have and it will stop these few individuals from taking advantage of sex workers,” Mgenge said.

“Currently, the law violates section 8 of The Constitution and sex workers will be better protected if the law is changed. It needs radical attention because sex workers are not just statistics. They are mothers with responsibilities. It is through this trade that children are raised, schooled and put in university,” Mgenge said.

“Because of this trade some families will be going to bed with a meal tonight.”

KZN Legislature speaker Nontembeko Boyce said that sex workers faced many challenges such as the riof human trafficking, gender based violence, child trafficking and exposure to HIV. However, she said that because the trade was illegal they currently were reluctant to report crimes committed against them to the police.