Johannesburg: Sonke Justice Network, one of the movements at the forefront of the war on gender-based violence and femicide (GVBF), has called for the government to speed up its legislation on the decriminalisation of sex work.
This comes after six women, reported to be sex workers, were found dead at a panel beating factory in Selby, Johannesburg, more than two weeks ago.
One of the women has been positively linked to 20-year-old Sifiso Mkhwanazi, who is said to have been luring women into his family business for over a year now.
This past week, Mkhwanazi made his second court appearance at the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court, where he is set to return this week.
He is currently charged with one count of murder and defeating the ends of justice. The suspect is yet to be linked to the murder of the five other women whose bodies were found to be at advanced stages of decomposition.
The 20-year-old was brought to book after the company's security guard informed Mkhwanazi's father, who subsequently called law enforcement authorities about a foul smell emanating from the workshop.
Upon further investigation, it was discovered that the smell was due to the dead bodies of women believed to be sex workers who were lured into the workshop by the accused.
Tebogo Rasebitse of the Sisonke Sex Workers Movement said he believes there are more other women who have gone missing after being picked up by clients, adding that the accused could be the missing link to those other women who are yet to be found.
In a statement issued on Friday, Sonke Gender Justice said it would like to see the government act swiftly to decriminalise sex work as its criminalisation contributed to the unjust and inhumane treatment of women in the trade.
"The criminalisation of sex work is pivotal to the safety of workers. President Cyril Ramaphosa made a commitment in March 2019 to decriminalise sex work and to the safeguarding of sex workers' human rights at the signing of the GBVF declaration. Two years later, sex work is still illegal and sex workers are still unsafe," the movement said.
Specialist for sex workers' rights at Sonke Gender Justice, Jayne Arnott said criminalisation of this trade continued to put the lives of its members in danger as they became vulnerable to exploitation by clients as well as abuse by law enforcement officials who harass and abuse them on a daily basis due to the stigma that comes with sex work.
Arnott said a recent study by the Female Transwomxn Sexworkers Deaths in SA report, published in 2020, has put the number of deaths of sex workers at 101 for the year 2018/2019, with 45% of these being murder.
She said the government and policymakers continued to fail sex workers as more and more workers continued to perish. "The government has failed to keep its promise. We are seeing an incline of brutal and senseless killings. This month, we are grieving over the brutal killing of six sex workers," Arnott said.
"We cannot continue to wait for change that can bring about much-needed protections and safer working conditions."
The Star