Sex workers ask law to go after clients
Shifting focus seen as a way to end ’sex slavery’
LUMKA Nyarhashe was just 10 years old when South Africans won the freedom to vote for the first time. But as another Freedom Day arrives this week, she is still chipping away at the shackles of sex slavery.
Like thousands of others, Nyarhashe became a sex worker when she felt her circumstances left her no choice. She is one of an estimated 150 000 sex workers earning their living in South Africa in a manner forbidden by the law.
When her unemployed mother could no longer afford the fees, Nyarhashe dropped out of school, and by the time she was 22 she was selling sex at Cape Town truck stops. Today she works from 8pm to midnight on Voortrekker Road.
But the 32-year-old mother of two, who grew up wanting to be a social worker, told the Sunday Times this week that she was trying to leave a life that has enslaved her.
On Wednesday she will join other sex workers “fighting for their own freedom” on a march to parliament, where they will demand changes to “oppressive” legislation on sex work.
The march will be led by women’s rights group Embrace Dignity, which is calling for the adoption of a model, first used in Sweden, that criminalises the buying, but not the selling, of sex.
Former deputy health minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, the director of Embrace Dignity, said current legislation was not working to reduce prostitution because it “does not deal with the underlying issues of why people get into sex work”.
“Research has shown people go into it out of a lack of choice. Because there are no jobs or they have dropped out of school and have no skills for the job market, or because they have experienced childhood abuse and because of gender inequality.”
Madlala-Routledge said criminalising sex work for the buyer alone would not only reduce entry into prostitution by reducing demand but also protect those “enslaved” by it.
“People in the industry call it sex slavery. It does not meet the minimum requirement for it to be called work. It would not fall within our labour legislation,” she said.
“The state has neglected its duty to ensure all citizens enjoy the right to dignity. We want the law to go after the buyer and the industry.”
The Swedish model is being adopted in an increasing number of countries, including Canada and Norway.
Since it was implemented in 1999, sex work in Sweden has declined dramatically, with the country’s Justice Ministry claiming the number of prostitutes halved in 15 years.
But the model faces opposition from another South African advocacy group, the Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Task force, or Sweat, which seeks the complete decriminalisation of sex work based on the legal framework used in New Zealand.
Sweat director Sally Shackleton said decriminalisation would allow sex workers to exercise their labour rights, report violence, and address the stigma they suffered.
“We believe decriminalisation is the most suitable framework . . . to reduce the harms against sex workers and enable them to access their rights,” she said.
But changes to prostitution laws are being stifled by the Department of Justice, which has had a report from the South African Law Reform Commission containing recommendations for new legislation since late 2015.
After hearing a submission for the release of the report from Embrace Dignity in March last year, parliament’s select committee on petitions and executive undertakings completed a study tour to Sweden “aimed at assisting the committee to better understand the models and methodologies adopted”.
Committee chairman Moses Mhlanga told the Sunday Times a number of recommendations were made to the department, including supporting the call for the establishment of a joint committee to investigate factors enabling forced prostitution and the support measures in place for sex workers who wanted to leave the industry.
After Wednesday’s march, Embrace Dignity will deliver a petition to the Office of the Presidency demanding the release of the law reform commission report and adoption of the Swedish model in South Africa.
For Nyarhashe it offers a lifeline. “I always wanted to exit but didn’t have any options,” she told the Sunday Times. “With Embrace Dignity and this new law I saw the opportunity and then it became a real option. If I got a job tomorrow I wouldn’t have a need to go back to the road.”
I always wanted to exit but didn’t have any options