South Africa: Let’s start thinking differently about sex work on National Women’s Day

Despite progressive strides in gender equality and sexual rights enshrined in our Constitution, sex work remains criminalised. Under this regime of total criminalisation, people selling and buying sex commit a criminal offence.

The criminalisation of consensual adult sex work in South Africa is a remnant of colonial and apartheid-era ideologies. These laws were designed to enforce rigid gender norms and exert punitive control.

Today, this outdated legal framework continues to exclude sex…