You know how it’s against the law to buy or sell sex in South Africa? Well, that might change soon if a new bill to make sex work legal gets passed. Some researchers and activists named Marlise Richter and Monique Huysamen explain what’s in the new law, why it’s good and what still needs to be fixed.
What does the new law say?
If the new law called the Criminal Law (Sexual Offenses and Related Matters) Amendment Bill 2022 gets passed, South Africa will be only the second country in the world to make sex work totally legal. You wouldn’t get in trouble for buying or selling sex anymore. The only other country that does this is New Zealand.
The new law wants to get rid of the part that makes buying and selling sex illegal. It also wants to erase the criminal records of those who got busted for buying or selling sex.
Of course, some people don’t like this bill at all, mostly because they think it’s wrong. They say that either:
- things should stay as they are now with everything about sex work being illegal; or
- sex workers should be let off the hook but their clients should still get punished.
This last idea comes from what they call the “Nordic model”—a way of doing things that some Nordic countries like Sweden follow.
You might be wondering why it’s so important to make sex work legal in South Africa.
Women in South Africa have a hard time with a lot of violence against them. Female sex workers have it even worse than other women. A recent study showed that 70% of female sex workers had someone hurt them in the past year. More than half had been raped by their partners, cops, clients or other men. When sex work is illegal, people think it’s okay to hurt sex workers.
Another reason to make sex work legal has to do with health. A lot of female sex workers have HIV in South Africa—much more than the average person.
Sex workers are more likely to get HIV because of the many risks that come with sex work when it’s illegal. Sex workers have sex with many people. Their work is dangerous and not safe. And they don’t have much power to make their clients use condoms or other protection.
Also, some people who work in health care look down on sex workers and treat them badly. This makes sex workers not want to go to health services, including those that can help them prevent or treat HIV.
Getting rid of old laws from the apartheid times would make a big difference for sex worker health and happiness and also for public health.
If sex work was not a crime, clients and cops wouldn’t be able to abuse sex workers. Sex workers would be able to ask for safe sex more often. Cops would have to listen to their problems. Sex workers would also feel more comfortable to report discrimination and rude healthcare workers.
If sex work was legal, people would see it as work. Sex workers would have rights like other workers do. Making sex work legal is especially important for poor black sex workers who come from working class backgrounds. They are the ones who suffer the most from the shame that comes with sex work being illegal.
You might have heard of the Nordic model.
It’s a way of making laws about sex work that some Nordic countries like Sweden and Norway use.
This model says that sex workers shouldn’t get in trouble for selling sex, but their clients should get in trouble for buying sex.
The idea behind this model is that if people can’t buy sex without getting caught, they will stop wanting to buy sex and sex work will go away.
But research in countries that use this model shows that it doesn’t work like that. It doesn’t make sex work safer for sex workers or make it disappear. It also shows that making clients illegal is bad for sex workers’ health.
When buying sex is illegal, sex workers don’t have enough time to check if their clients are safe or not and clients can force them to do things they don’t want to do in places they don’t feel comfortable.
South Africans know very well why the government shouldn’t tell people who they can have sex with. The old apartheid government used to ban people from having sex with someone of a different “color” or the same “sex”. South Africans said no to that when they got democracy. But this same law still exists for adult, consensual sex work.
Hey, do you know what’s going on with the sex work bill? I think it’s a good idea to make it legal for people to pay for sex. Let me tell you why.
We did some research and we found out that most people who buy sex are men, but they are not all the same. Some of them are mean and hurt sex workers. But many of them are nice and respectful. Some sex workers even say they have good relationships and agreements with their clients.
When we asked these men if they ever did anything bad to sex workers, most of them said no. They said they don’t like violence and they don’t want to harm sex workers.
So we think that if we let these men pay for sex without getting in trouble, it would be good for everyone.
First of all, we could ask some of these nice men to talk to other men who buy sex and teach them how to be respectful and safe.
Secondly, we could also ask these men to report any bad things they see in the sex industry, like people being forced or kids being involved.
Thirdly, we could help these men stay healthy and prevent HIV. If more of them take medicine that stops HIV from spreading, it would stop a lot of new infections in our country.
Some people say that we should follow the Nordic model and put these men in jail for buying sex. But I think that’s wrong and unfair. It makes these men look like monsters when they are not. It also makes it harder for everyone to stay healthy and safe.
That’s why I think we should pass this bill as soon as possible.
It will make sex work safer and better for everyone involved. And it will make our society more peaceful and just.