The decomposed bodies of six women, four of whom were identified as sex workers, were recently discovered at a panel beating factory in Johannesburg. A year-old man has been charged with six counts of murder.
The case highlights, again, the risks of sex work for women in South Africa. It also puts the spotlight on the regulation of sex work. There are different ways of regulating sex work. These include criminalisation, legalisation, partial decriminalisation and decriminalisation. Sex work is a crime in South Africa, which means that all sex work that is performed on streets or in brothels is illegal and is policed as such. This makes it particularly difficult for sex workers who operate on the streets to be safe.
They fear being arrested by police, often forcing them into unsafe spaces where clients are free to abuse them. They are also vulnerable to police abuse. Read more: Sex workers in Nigeria deserve fair treatment from the media.
Like the Commission for Gender Equality, I also support decriminalisation. That would, among other things, mitigate some of the risks that sex workers face because of their work being deemed a crime in the country.
They are exposed to physical violence, the risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases, unintended pregnancies, police abuse, mental anguish and even death. These laws were reviewed several years ago by the South African Law Reform Commission , a permanent body that investigates law reform, established under Act 19 of Its report called for the continued criminalisation of sex work to prevent people from. Rebutting the argument that poverty is one of the reasons people enter sex work, the report said women should rather seek social welfare interventions.
