Cape High Court allows multiple groups to intervene in SWEAT’s challenge to laws criminalising consenting adult sex work By Tania Broughton The Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce and a sex worker are challenging laws that criminalise consenting adults soliciting and engaging in sexual acts for reward, arguing the laws violate constitutional rights. Cape High Court Judge Andre Le Grange has...

A bill to decriminalise sex work was sent back to the justice department for redrafting about two years ago By Liezl Human Sex workers are calling for a moratorium on arrests and fines until politicians mull over finalising the redraft of a bill to decriminalise sex work. This comes nearly two years after the bill was withdrawn and sent back to...

The laws “have not deterred … the selling or buying of sex … and are not rationally capable of doing so. They merely create greater stigma and vulnerability among sex workers and violate their rights.” By Tania Broughton A Cape Town sex worker, with the support of the Sex Worker Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT), has launched a constitutional challenge to...

Human Rights Watch calls for decriminalisation  By Zoë Postman “Two years ago a policeman arrested me. He was alone and took me somewhere in the town in his car and then told me to give him free services and so I did,” a sex worker from Tzaneen, Limpopo, is quoted as saying in a new report. She was one of 46 female sex...

“It’s like any other type of work” By Ashraf Hendricks and GroundUp Staff Gavin Jacobs started his career in sex work in London. Running out of cash, he learnt about massage parlours though friends. Not wanting to return to Cape Town, his hometown, just yet, he decided to work at one. Gay, young and energetic, Jacobs partied hard and often. So he thought, “I might...