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UNAids executive director Winnie Byanyima. Image: UNAids on X

Decriminalization – a prerequisite to ending Aids and TB

The same structural failures that sustain the HIV epidemic also sustain tuberculosis

When courts dismiss violence on the basis of occupation, the message is clear: sex workers’ lives matter less.

Amid all the talk about preventing gender-based violence, sex workers are ignored

Blurb online What makes sex work dangerous are the laws, policies and attitudes that surround it

Two-way street: Reality show This Body Works for Me follows the lives of seven South African sex workers. Photo: Supplied

A candid look at sex work

Thandeka, who has been working in the sector for 13 years, says a new reality TV series is edifying

Sex workers in South Africa want their profession decriminalised

Legalising sex work is not a moral issue, it’s a human rights issue

A new bill that seeks to decriminalise sex work is now open for public comment

If sex work continues to be criminalised, sex workers will continue to be forced to work in unsafe, abusive and dangerous conditions. Photo: David Harrison

Defending a prostituted person’s dignity starts with saying ‘no’ to full decriminalisation

Re-opening of South Africa’s prostitution law reform debate makes the mistake of assuming it is work and not exploitation.

Persecuted: Officers remove refugees camping outside the United Nations Council for Refugees’ office in Cape Town in October 2019. (AFP)

Some black lives matter, others don’t

We condemn the killing of a black Americans, yet women, African foreigners and queer people are regularly abused and killed in SA

Aside from the economic benefits, urgent decriminalisation is needed to ensure constitutional rights of the country’s estimated 153 000 sex workers. (John McCann/M&G)

Police treat sex workers like they are ‘nothing’

Those on the street say that the usual abuse has intensified under the lockdown

Outreach: Esther (centre), a staff member of the nongovernmental organisation Lady Mermaid’s Bureau, which advocates for the human rights of female and bisexual sex workers, distributes items to those who have been hard hit by the lockdown in Uganda. (Sumy Sadurni/AFP)
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Sex workers abandoned as Covid-19 crackdowns undo Africa’s HIV efforts

Controlling Covid-19 may worsen Africa’s HIV epidemic by stopping state and civil society health services built up over 35 years

It is time for people respond to change gender-based violence, and end the suffering. (Photo: Delwyn Verasamy)

UN agency adopts convention on harrassment at work

The convention is critical in terms of promoting and protecting the rights of working women

HIV funding cuts fall hardest on key populations: sex workers, gay and bisexual men, transgender women and people who inject drugs — who have a much higher chance of getting HIV and depend heavily on specialised, donor-funded services which the government has been slow to take over. (Dylan Bush, Bhekisisa)

Sex work and soccer: More alike than you think?

One in three sex workers in South Africa say they’ve been raped by a police officer. Could a change in the law solve this?

Sex work is selling a service

[LISTEN] This mom became a sex worker and her daughter is fine with it

Sex work is selling a service, not your body, says Mariska Majoor. There’s nothing sinister about it.

Joan Segale says even going to the shops can be traumatic because residents shout at sex workers, tell them they are not wanted and that they have HIV. (Oupa Nkosi/M&G)

The Joburg suburb ridding itself of ‘immoral’ sex workers — with pangas and bullets

Tasers, rubber bullets, pangas, dogs and snakes are used to rid a Jo’burg suburb of its ‘immoral’ sex workers

Beaufort West (David Harrison)

Sex workers do it for their kids

Their chief concern is the wellbeing of their children so that they can do better than their mothers

Joan Collins* worked as an intensive care nurse in Cape Town. But that’s not the only way she made a living.

Nurse: ‘I had to supplement my income. That’s when I got into sex work.’

Joan Collins* worked as an intensive care nurse in Cape Town. But that’s not the only way she made a living.

How do you fix South Africa’s sexual and reproductive health wrongs? Well, helping people access their rights is a start. (Roxy de Villiers)

This bracelet could one day help keep you safe from rape, assaults

How do you fix South Africa’s sexual and reproductive health wrongs? Help people access their rights.

Zimbabwe women ‘selling sex for fuel’ (Photo Archive)

Selling sex

From Amsterdam’s glittering canals to Durban’s dark streets, take a look at how the world legislates sex — and why it matters.

The Swedish model

WATCH: All the ways the world polices sex

The Swedish model, legalisation, decriminalisation — does the sex work debate leave you confused? Look no further.

The South African police took a vow to protect people living in the country. Apparently that doesn’t apply to sex workers like Cleopatra. (Dylan Bush)

This is what it’s like being a sex worker: ‘Police dragged me out in public naked’

Go inside one of the country’s most dangerous jobs.

File photo

Eight ways to make HIV stories meaningful

HIV is a mirror that reflects how we think about society. It exposes our prejudices. Find out how to tell interesting stories about it.

Scenes from Falz’s remake of ‘This is America’ titled ‘This is Nigeria’
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One in three sex workers surveyed report being sexually abused by police

Sex workers tell of being tortured, including being beaten with sjamboks.