GroundUp reports that about 200 sex workers gathered at the East London International Centre on Thursday for a dialogue with Deputy Minister for Social Development Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu about government’s plans to decriminalise sex work.

She encouraged all sex workers to read the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Bill of 2022, which would decriminalise “the sale and purchase of adult sexual services”. Bogopane-Zulu also indicated that the Bill was currently opposed by traditional leaders and religious groups. Sex workers told the deputy minister that criminalisation had left them open to abuse by police. They said police raped, robbed and harassed them. A male sex worker accused police of deliberately locking up arrested gay sex workers with other males in the holding cells, knowing that they would be gang raped. Another sex worker told the minister she had been raped several times by police officers after being arrested. Yet another sex worker said they are not only victimised by police but also by some clients and members of the community. Katlego Rasebitse, national organiser for Sisonke National Sex Workers Movement, said police should be focussed on serious crimes not the soft target of sex work. He also said the organisation was fighting for the removal of criminal records. Bogopane-Zulu confirmed that the department would be lobbying for the expunging of criminal records for sex work. Comments on the Bill are due by 31 January 2023.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Johnnie Isaac at GroundUp
• Read too, Sex workers and the law, on page 18 of Sunday Times of 11 December 2022

Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page