It is illegal to buy or sell sex in South Africa. But this may soon be a thing of the past if a recently published draft bill to decriminalise sex work is passed. Researchers and activists Marlise Richter and Monique Huysamen set out what’s in the new law, what’s good about it and what still needs work.
If the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Bill 2022 is passed, South Africa will become only the second country in the world to fully decriminalise sex work. It would no longer be illegal to buy or sell sex. New Zealand is the only other country where this is the position.
The draft law proposes the removal of the criminalisation of buying and selling of sex. It also proposes to clear the criminal records of those who have been prosecuted for buying or selling sex.
Predictably, various groups have pushed back against the bill, mostly on moral grounds. Opponents of the bill recommend that either:
the current law that fully criminalises all aspects of sex work remains in place; or
that sex workers are decriminalised but that clients remain criminalised.
This last idea is drawn from what’s called the “Nordic model” – an approach followed by some Nordic countries, including Sweden.
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