Survivors say legalising sex work ignores their trauma

While political leaders argue over the legalisation of sex work in South Africa, the women at the heart of the trade are calling for the country to look deeper. Survivors of sex trafficking and exploitation say legalisation would only cement the suffering they’ve endured, and that the current debate ignores their trauma, safety, and rights.

Two of these women have shared their experiences of being trafficked, exploited, and stripped of dignity, not by the lack of legal status, but by the very system that would be legitimised through legalisation.

They say that what’s needed is not a legal framework that protects pimps and buyers, but urgent interventions that protect women, restore agency, and dismantle the cycles of poverty and abuse that drive them into sex work in the first place.

Speaking to the Saturday Star, Abigail, who asked to remain anonymous, talked about her journey.

“I did not go into prostitution out of choice. I was trafficked and forced into it. I was held in the situation for five and a half months before I managed to escape. It was never a choice. I was literally taken and held against my will in a house where several other girls were also being kept. I was not allowed to leave. My ID and phone were taken from me, and it was a terrifying situation.”

She spoke about the deep emotional toll of being forced to expose herself to strangers day after day, how it broke down her sense of dignity, took a toll on her health, and left her completely cut off from her loved ones.

“Everything about it is difficult. Exposing yourself to multiple people a day in such an intimate way is extremely hard. You are not safe, you cannot leave, you cannot speak to your family, and you are completely cut off from your community. You are treated as less than human. It is a huge trap. It is filled with perversion, sickness, disease, oppression, and abuse. My safety was always at risk, and even trying to escape was dangerous and dramatic. There is no dignity in prostitution – you are degraded in the worst way, multiple times a day.”

Abigail said everything shifted when she discovered she was pregnant.

“I had fallen pregnant, and I knew I could not raise a child in such a situation. I had already seen mothers and babies trapped in that environment, and I refused to let that be my life.”

Another woman, who asked to remain anonymous, shared that she turned to sex work out of desperation, not choice. Growing up in poverty and unable to find stable work, she felt pressure to provide for her family and saw it as the only way to make ends meet.

“My situation led me into prostitution. Coming from a poor background with no qualifications to get a well-paying job and failing to find work, I felt pressured as the firstborn child to change things at home and provide the best. Prostitution seemed like an easy and fast way to make money at that time. I was pushed into it by circumstances because at that time I was unemployed and couldn't find a job, ” she revealed.

“Health-wise, my teeth got damaged by smoking and other substances I once used. In terms of dignity, I honestly feel ashamed. I get afraid of meeting people who know my past, so I mostly stay in the house. When I go out, I worry about being judged or called names by those who know the kind of life I once lived. I wish I could move and start afresh somewhere new, where nobody knows my past.”

The national debate was reignited when EFF leader Julius Malema used a Women’s Day rally in Mpumalanga to call for the legalisation of sex work. Framing it as “the oldest profession in the world,” Malema argued that sex work should be recognised as legitimate labour, with legal protections, workers’ rights, and safety for those in the trade.

“We are saying to the South African government, ‘You must legalise prostitution. No one is going to be raped by police in the name of being a prostitute, and when she goes to open a case, they can't open a case because they say she's a prostitute,” he said.

For activists like Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, co-founder and executive director of Embrace Dignity, legalisation would be a step backward for women’s rights.

Madlala-Routledge says a call for the legalisation of sex work sends the message that women’s bodies are commodities to be bought and sold rather than dignified human beings with rights. 

“Making such a call during Women’s Month flies in the face of the purpose of dedicating a month to women’s rights, which women like Lillian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph, Rahima Moosa, and Sophie Williams De-Bruyn and the gallant women who stood on the steps of the Union Buildings on 9 August 1956 were fighting for. Politically, the legalisation of an oppressive, exploitative and violent system would signal that South Africa prioritises the interests of abusers, sex buyers – and those who profit from the abuse – pimps and brothel owners – over the well-being of women and girls.”

“Legalisation of prostitution would undermine the rights in our Constitution to gender equality, human dignity, security of the person, and psychological and bodily integrity. Socially, it could normalise the exploitation of the most vulnerable, many of whom enter prostitution because of childhood sexual abuse or neglect, poverty, or lack of employment opportunity. Instead of advancing women’s equality, legalisation deepens gender inequality.”

Her organisation instead supports the “abolitionist model”, which she explains, “Abolition is not about punishing women in prostitution – it is about recognising their humanity. It shifts the legal focus onto the exploiters: the buyers and third parties making a profit from the exploitation. By criminalising demand while providing robust support services for survivors, abolition disrupts the market and reduces exploitation.”

The legal landscape is also shifting, with organisations such as Cause for Justice (CFJ) having filed court submissions opposing decriminalisation. They argue that prostitution violates human dignity by commodifying human beings.

"CFJ's stance is based on the fundamental dignity of each human person, endowed with inherent worth and incalculable value. Prostitution involves the commodification of the human body, reducing human beings to commercial sex objects/commodities for the sexual gratification of predatory individuals, i.e., it violates their personhood and equal dignity as members of the human family.”

anita.nkonki@inl.co.za

Saturday Star