At a summit hosted by the Multi-Party Women’s Caucus yesterday on the decriminalisation of adult prostitution, the Chief Executive Officer of the Commission for Gender Equality, Ms Keketso Maema, said the commission’s position is that sex work (also called adult prostitution) should not be treated as criminal activity.

The summit follows the release of a report by the South African Law Reform Commission in 2017 on Sexual Offences: Adult Prostitution, which recommended that sex work should continue to be criminalised or partially criminalised.

Ms Maema said the criminalisation of sex work is contrary to international law and unfairly infringes upon rights enshrined in South Africa’s Bill of Rights in the constitution.

Various other stakeholders made presentations during the summit. One sex worker called for full decriminalisation. “We are earning a living to provide for our families. Yes, there are dangers and there are dangers in mining as well,” she said.

Sisonke, a sex worker’s advocacy group calling for such adult prostitution to be recognised as work and for sex workers’ health and human rights to be ensured, said it felt betrayed and disrespected by the report, as it recommends laws that continue to harm and stigmatise. A Sisonke representative said: “We feel saddened that, in a country where we are praised for having a brilliant constitution, the report is silencing people voices and denying them a right to choose how they want to make a living.”

The Centre for Applied Legal Studies said the decriminalisation and removal of criminal prosecution for sex work recognises such work as labour that ought to be protected through workplace health and safety standards.

Yoliswa Landu
6 March 2018