The Sisonke Sex Workers’ Movement says many sex workers have to lie about what they do in order to evade arrest.
An increasing number of sex workers are adding their voices to calls for government to expedite a bill to decriminalise the industry in the country.
Sex workers believe the bill will help to protect their dignity and ensure their safety.
Government is currently working on draft legislation that will allow sex workers to operate legally in the country.
The movement’s Katlego Rasebitse says this is long overdue, “A number of sex workers in South Africa, instead of them admitting that I was engaged in this freely, they opt to say I’m being trafficked. Then the law changes from being a sex worker to human trafficking then they make sure she is kept in a safer place and treated nicely. But three days after release, they go back to do the same work, evading arrest again, they will keep on doing the same thing.”
Decriminalisation by 2024
Deputy Minister of Social Development Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu maintains that sex work will be decriminalised by 2024.
In September, the department held engagements with sex workers in Kimberley in the Northern Cape.
Sex workers in the province said that the delay in decriminalising sex work is putting their lives in further danger, adding that they fail to receive protection from the police when they come across violent clients who abuse them financially and physically.
More details in the report below:
