As South Africa celebrates National Women's Day and 30 years of democracy, it is crucial to shine a light on a highly marginalised group in our society: adult female sex workers.

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.

advertisementDon't want to see this? Remove adsToday, this outdated legal framework continues to exclude sex workers from constitutional protection, trapping them in a cycle of inequality, marginalisation and stigmatisation, rendering them 'free game'.

Forced to operate in an extra-legal realm, they endure frequent human rights violations from clients and police, including physical abuse, sexual violence, and a lack of access to legal and health services. Working in the shadows of the law, sex workers are part of the informal labour market, which compounds their experiences of discrimination and inequality.

The feminisation of poverty, insufficient social services, and deeply ingrained societal attitudes about sex and gender roles intertwine with national policies and power dynamics to sustain their exclusion from legal protections. The Covid pandemic only exacerbated the instability and uncertainty...