Sex workers and groups lobbying for the decriminalisation of sex work say they have noticed an increase in harassment by the police as the festive season draws near. The remarks were made at the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, and Intersex Association (ILGA) conference taking place in Cape Town.

According to Lloyd Rugara, the Western Cape coordinator for Sisonke National Sex Workers Movement, harassment of sex workers by the police has increased. “Unlawful arrests are more common during this time of the year. Because the police do patrols in the areas, they get to know who are the sex workers and this leads to discrimination. A sex worker who is a mother can get arrested for going to a shop to buy food for her children at a spaza shop. The police will assume that the person is doing sex work for standing outside a shop,” he said.

Pam Ntshekula, an activist with the Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce (Sweat) said that the police take advantage of especially street-based sex workers by extorting sexual favours from them in exchange for not getting arrested or fined. “The police tell the sex worker to give them a blowjob or sex. They take advantage of the vulnerability of sex workers because they threaten you with arrest without proof. Someone standing on the street does not make them a sex worker. Or is it because they profile them and know where they stand? They are not even supposed to do that,” said Ntshekula. She also told Elitsha that sex workers have to endure a lot of stigma when trying to access healthcare services.

Connie Mathe from Asijiki Coalition for the Decriminalisation of Sex Work highlighted the stigma criminalisation causes. “If you get arrested as a sex worker you get profiled. Your face and name is out there and it is in the system. To clear your name takes up to 10 years for one arrest,” she said. The police normally pick up sex workers on weekends and if you have been arrested on multiple weekends, she explained, it means clearing your name is impossible. “This means you will die with your name in the system and you won’t be able to get a job with that because it is a criminal offence. This is one of the reasons that we need to decriminalise sex work,” Mathe argued.

Decriminalisation of sex work in South Africa

Sex worker groups have been lobbying for decriminalisation of sex work and want the Sexual Offences Act that criminalises selling and buying of sex to be repealed. The act, according to Emily Craven, the director of Sweat, dates back to the apartheid era when it was called the Sexual Immorality Act which criminalised sexual relations between people of a different race and homosexuality.

“So, this is an ancient piece of legislation which was swept out at the end of apartheid with one exception. All the provisions around sex work remained. Then in 2007, the Sexual Offences Amendment Act was introduced and that act criminalised buying sex,” said Craven.

Activists told the ILGA conference that the law reform process to decriminalise sex work is being delayed due to the change of administration and that there is no majority party under the government of national unity that they can lobby. “We wrote a bill and submitted it to the ministry of justice during the sixth administration. The bill was put out of for public comments. We were advised to add some provisions to it after we consulted with sex workers and we submitted it but unfortunately we had a government change which was a big worry for us. We haven’t heard from them since but we are trying to get responses from the justice ministry as to where things are at,” said Asijiki’s Mathe. She said they have also launched a legal case against the government, which will be heard next year in March.

“We believe that once the sex work industry is decriminalised, then there won’t be profiling of sex workers and the criminal records would be removed. The stigma and discrimination against sex workers will be much less. People will be able to access their rights and the choice of work would be respected,” said Mathe.