GroundUp reports that Reverend Alan Storey of the Central Methodist Mission, together with members of the Asijiki Coalition for the Decriminalisation of Sex Work, on Thursday hoisted a banner over the church steeple in Greenmarket Square in Cape Town in support of the decriminalisation of sex work.  

The banner, which reads “Jesus was the first to decriminalise sex work”, is part of the church’s Yellow Banner Theology.  According to the Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT), this is the first time a South African religious institution has made a public statement in support of the decriminalisation of sex work in South Africa.  “What the criminalisation of sex work has done is make a vulnerable group of people even more vulnerable,” said Storey.  “The unintended consequences of criminalising sex work are horrific.”  At its 54th Elective conference in December 2017, the African National Conference (ANC) resolved to decriminalise sex work.

• Read this report by Aidan Jones in full at GroundUp

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