Sex workers: #FunkItImWalking protest renews calls for decriminalisation
Sex workers and supporters joined the #FunkItImWalking protest in Johannesburg Thursday, calling for the decriminalisation of sex work.
“For as long as the state criminalises sex workers, who are adults working to sustain their families, there is no freedom,” says Katlego Rasebitse of Sisonke sex workers advocacy group.
He joined about 80 people from various sex workers’ rights groups and supporters who gathered at the Beyers Naude Square in Johannesburg for the #FunkItImWalking on Thursday.
They walked to Constitution Hill singing struggle songs and chanting “Funk it I’m walking! Let’s walk to freedom”, drawing the attention of bystanders in the inner city. The walk was organised as a collaboration between Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT), Sisonke and the Asijiki Coalition.
PICS: MAGOSHAS TAKE FIGHT TO THE STREETS! Lethabo Khambule
Comments Azania Public, Funk It I m Walking and sex worker organizations - Sisonke, SWEAT and Asijiki Coalition walking to decriminalise sex work. Photo: Trevor Kunene.
“VIVA, sex work decriminalisation, viva!
A group of women chanted this as they walked the streets of Joburg marching for the decriminalisation of sex work.
On Thursday, Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Task Force (Sweat, as well as Sisonke and Asijiki Coalition, joined forces in “Funk It I’m Walking”, led by artist Nomsa Mazwai.
Magoshas workers also joined the walk and shared their plight and tales of abuse at the hands of police and clients.
JHB-Hillbrow walk pushes for safe and legal sex work in SA
By Lesego Makgatho
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Sex workers have been fighting for the right to work freely and safely in South Africa.
Advocates/activists, political figures, the general public, and over one hundred sex workers today took part in the walk from Johannesburg CBD to Hillbrow in solidarity with sex workers in decriminalising sex work.
Nomsa Mazwai, the activist-academic-artist founder of an NPO called #FunkItImWalking, an organisation whose sole aim is to make the streets safer for women to walk at any time of day in any condition, joined forces with organisations Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT) and Sisonke South Africa to foreground the plight of sex workers in a bid to decriminalise sex work in the country.