Sex Workers Protest Outside Justice Department Offices

Sex work activists set up a “help desk” outside the offices of the Department of Justice on Monday.

Sex workers and activists are calling for urgency reviving a bill to decriminalise sex work bill, which is currently being drafted for the second time.

On Monday 2 June, members of Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT) and the Asijiki Coalition set up desks and chairs outside the offices of the Department of Justice (DOJ) in Cape Town. The mock “help desk” was meant to represent sex workers and the DOJ drafting the bill together, with the seat reserved for the DOJ left empty. A large sign at the desk read: “Sex workers are here to help you to redraft the bill.”

“Maybe they will come down and draft the bill with us,” said Lloyd Rugara, provincial coordinator for the Sisonke National Sex Work Movement.

It’s been two years since the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Bill of 2022 was withdrawn and sent back to be revised. In May 2023 state law advisors raised concerns about the bill’s lack of regulation, according to former deputy minister John Jeffery. The new deputy minister Andries Nel has since taken office.

Sex worker organisations have demanded a clear timeframe for the bill’s implementation, consultations with sex workers, and the prioritisation of the “long-delayed reform”.

Constance Mathe, national coordinator at Asijiki, said that since funding cuts from USAID caused sex worker-friendly clinics to close down, sex workers have struggled to access health services at public facilities. They face stigma and long waiting hours at clinics and hospitals, she says.

Mathe says that the decriminalisation bill would mean sex workers would be recognised under labour laws and would have safer working conditions.

Mathe also raises concerns over the lack of consultation with sex workers during the second drafting of the bill and says that the drafting process was taking too long. “No redrafting can take two years,” says Mathe.

DOJ official Ashika Singh came outside to meet the activists. She said the DOJ would give them a response within three weeks.

Sex workers and activists call for the decriminalisation bill to be fast tracked.

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