“To be or not to be?”: The decriminalisation of sex work in South Africa

Ramabulana, Fulufhelo Shirley

“To be or not to be?”: The decriminalisation of sex work in South Africa

Master Thesis

2022

Abstract

President Cyril Ramaphosa in his speech at the launch of the Gender-Based Violence (GBV) and Femicide Declaration in 2019, made the commitment to working towards decriminalising sex work in South Africa as a means to also fight GBV. This in-line with what organisations that advocate for sex work such as the Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT) and Sonke Gender Justice have been fighting for. The plight of sex workers and the urgent requirement for sex work legislative reforms has been highlighted by the documented increase or the spotlight on GBV. Sex work is predominantly a profession taken up by women and thus the effects of its criminalisation are mostly experienced by women. Therefore, there is a close link between the struggles of sex workers the struggle against GBV. The thesis explores the reasons why advocacy groups such as SWEAT support decriminalisation as opposed to legalisation and partial decriminalisation. Drawing an understanding as to why other sex work modules do not appeal to the needs of sex workers and why they are viewed to lead back to the infringement on basic human rights. Furthermore, it looks at the impact of using the GBV platforms to address the decriminalisation of sex work in South Africa.

Keywords

Public Policy and Administration

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