Highlighting plight of SA's prostitutes

File picture: Christian Hartmann

File picture: Christian Hartmann

Published Jul 14, 2016

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Cape Town - A story of a sex worker who had allegedly been raped, strangled and then put in a drum filled with acid is just one of many horrendous experiences that the country’s sex workers go through in their daily lives.

Addressing journalists during a press briefing by Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce (Sweat) on Wednesday, human rights and lobbying officer Nosipho Vidima said the gruesome episode took place in Newcastle in KwaZulu-Natal this year.

Vidima said the incident was one of 10 reported cases countrywide in which sex workers were believed to have had been killed, allegedly by their clients.

Sweat and other sex worker advocacy groups, including the Women’s Legal Centre and Sonke Gender Justice, will be at the forefront at the Aids Conference in Durban where they plan to highlight the thorny subject of legalising prostitution.

According to Sweat, the South African Law Reform Commission started looking at the possibility of decriminalising sex work in 2002.

The Project 107: Adult Prostitution document had since been handed to the Department of Justice for consideration.

Sweat advocacy manager Ishtar Lakhani said: “We have givensubmissions, people who oppose sex work have given submissions, but we are still waiting for this report. A big thing for us at the Aids conference is to draw attention to the fact that it has been a back-and-forth issue since 2002.”

Lakhani blamed a “lack of political will” for the slow pace in which the issues of sex workers were being addressed.

“There’s been so much violence and hate crimes and human rights violations perpetrated against sex workers, you would think this would be something that would be a priority.”

The theme behind the 21st Aids Conference, which is set to take place at the Durban International Convention Centre next week, is to look at progress made in the last decade in the fight against the spread of HIV/Aids.

“When it comes to sex workers, nothing has changed in the past 10 years. There’s been no progress whatsoever when it comes to legislation,” Lakhani said.

However, inroads had somewhat been made to address the legal woes faced by many sex workers. Sweat had in recent months introduced paralegal teams for sex workers in Cape Town and Joburg.

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Cape Argus

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