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Dozens of sex workers took to the street on Tuesday 14 September calling for the decriminalisation of sex work.
The group marched through the streets of Salt River on to commemorate International Sex Worker Pride, one of four days to bring light to sex workers’ rights.
In attendance at the event, which was held at the Blackpool Sports Complex, were members of the Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce (Sweat), Sisonke, the National Movement of Sex Workers and Triangle Project.
Officials from the Western Cape Department of Health also administered Covid-19 vaccinations to the group.
Zandile Mbabaza, advocacy coordinator at Sweat, says the aim was to celebrate sex work pride. “As we all know that the LGBTQI+ community are also celebrating their lives, so we thought that why not? Sex workers are enjoying their life and they are also human so we are celebrating with sex workers.”
Mbabaza says they are calling for the decriminalisation of sex work because of the many challenges that sex workers struggle with. These challenges include the stigma around their living conditions and Mbabaza says, the perception created by police regarding where and how they work.
“So we are trying to fight those challenges to tell the community and the world that sex workers are human,”says Mbabaza.
She says they started their pride walk from the Mowbray Police Station where they handed over a memorandum following the death of Robyn Montsumi, a sex worker who died in her cell after being in custody for several days on a drug charge in April last year.
“We have been asking the question, ‘Why did she die?’ but we get no answer. So we handed over a memorandum and we are looking for justice for that case.”
Chuma Dyasoni, a male sex worker and also a member of the sex workers’ theatre, says they are not criminals.
“In South Africa if you are a sex worker, it’s like you are a criminal. You are just like a person who is stealing; so people, especially clients, take advantage and they tell you they are not going to pay you.”
Nicole Adams, who has been a sex worker for more than a decade, says she is proud of the work she does.
“I fight for the decriminalisation of sex workers because of my personal experience. I am homeless currently but I fight for the voices of these women that have lost their dignity. I want to show them that there is still life inside of us. I am a mother of four, but I am a proud queer.”
Adams says the stigma attached to sex work is something she faces regularly.
“I am a sex worker and I do not get seen as my baby’s mother because I am a sex worker. I can’t touch my baby because I am a sex worker. The women in the community will look at you strangely because of their husbands that would come and buy sex by us. But I would also like to tell these women that, we don’t only provide sex, there are times that the men just come and have a conversation. We are counsellors, we are interveners.”
Lumka Mpisekhaya explains that she took the vaccine so that she can protect herself and her clients and help prevent the spread of Covid-19.
Sister Porche Hudsenberg, onsite overseer, says they administered more than 50 Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer vaccinations on the day.
“We had homeless people, sex workers and residents from the area that came. We don’t discriminate because the vaccine is available for everybody. We registered them and some people were already registered.
Dr Nomafrench Mbombo, provincial health ,minister who attended the event, says her department fully supports the decriminalisation of sex work, as it will “put an end to the exploitation” of sex workers and make it easier for them to access health services.
“Some of them are still discriminated against, for example some of them might have chronic medication like ARV’s, then police are confiscating them or putting them in jail because sex work is a criminal offence in South Africa. Even to access any ordinary health service is a challenge, so we bring some of these health services where they are. Working together with organisations where they even have clinics for them to be able to access especially ARV’s.”
Mbombo says her department is committed to bringing health services to vulnerable people. She says: “We bring the vaccine to the people as we have done with the homeless, now we are doing with the sex workers because they won’t go to the normal health platforms so rather bring it to them. In health we leave no one behind.”
