Walking a mile in her heels

ANC MP Patricia Chueu left many mouths hanging open when she compared the violent and degrading struggles of sex workers to her own battles with broken heels.

She showed her insensitive side during a meeting with women from the sex workers’ lobby group, SWEAT, who are pushing for the decriminalisation of sex work to be expedited.

Teary sex workers spoke of how their colleagues were murdered and how they were shunned by their communities and routinely harassed and assaulted by police.

Chueu commiserated: “It’s not just you. Our working conditions are not good. You come to work, you feel very ill, every time you [have a] blocked [nose] because of the airconditioner here. You walk on the pavement, your shoe goes off every day . . . we have been complaining about it since 1994 when we came here. So it’s not just you,” she said.

Happy Women’s Month to all.