Izwi Lethu: Our Voice Newsletter Issue 10 2016

IZWI LETHU: OUR VOICE

Issue 10

Izwi Lethu

Our Voice

June 2016 A NEWSLETTER BY SEX WORKERS FOR SEX WORKERS

Editor’s Note

Photo Feature

by Tanaka,

by Clara, Contributing Editor

Editor-in-Chief

Izwi Lethu is back with a bang!

This is the first issue for the year 2016. And you are only getting to taste the goodness that we have been preparing for you over the past six months now. As they say, “Good things come to those who wait.” Now the waiting is paying off. The Izwi Lethu team wants to share an amazing line up of events that took place in the first quarter of 2016.

For several years the members of the sex work sector have been making efforts to launch the National Strategic Plan (NSP) on HIV. In 2013 when the NSP was to be officiated, the former great Statesman of South Africa, Nelson Mandela passed on and the plan was placed on hold.

In 2015, the Deputy President could not be present due to unforeseen circumstances. Once again, the long awaited event was postponed.

On the 11th of March this year, the NSP was finally launched.

The Deputy President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, in the flesh took time to engage with sex workers and acknowledged that sex work was essentially work.

He also made remarks on how the Department of Police is curbing the efforts of the Department of Health in providing services to sex workers.

The crowd was exhilarated to hear that he was in support of law reform with regard to sex work governing policies.

For more details on this and other info-tainment please keep reading.

Winter is here!! Be sure to stay warm!

Lotsa Love Tanaka

Clara at the Conference

Photos from the Sex Worker Learning and Sharing Event, Johannesburg, South Africa, April 2016, by Clara.

Continued on page 7.

Sisonke National Coordinator: Kholi Editor in Chief: Tanaka Managing Editor: Gavin

Contributing Editor: Katlego Contributing Editor: Clara Contributing Editor: Linda Contributing Editor: Amy

IZWI LETHU: OUR VOICE Issue 10

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The Power of the Orange Sea by

Kagee, Contributing Editor

What is the power of the Orange Sea? Her noise can be heard from Washington to India.

South Africans can hear that noise on TV, radio, newspaper, and Izwi Lethu.

Our streets every year are covered with the blood of her army, Who holds tools to fight in advocating health and human rights.

What is the power of the Orange Sea? She has formed a powerful coalition with other forces.

Women’s Legal Center, Sisonke Sex Worker Movement, Sonke Gender Justice, and SWEAT know her.

Her army is given marching orders: Asijiki. Asijiki. Asijki. Asijiki.

What is the power of the Orange Sea? Is it the orange t-shirts that her army wears?

With advocacy messages boldly written: This is what a sex worker likes like.

We demand justice, ijob yijob.

My work should not cost me my life.

My body my business.

What is the power of the Orange Sea? When her waves hit the Deputy President of South Africa, Protea flowers were handed out For the first time to a sex worker.

YouTube can you testify for me?

What is the power of the Orange Sea? Let me call upon her right wing forces, Peer educators, Team leaders, Coordinators, Advocacy Team Members, Organizers, National leaders, Lobbyists and Members, to answer this question.

What is the power of the Orange Sea? Let those with membership cards answer me.

Let the courts of South Africa answer me.

Can I have an answer from those who breathe this power?

Sisonke, you are the power of the Orange Sea. Decriminalization of sex work will come from Your belly because you carry the power of the Orange Sea. Nothing about us without us!!!

Event Ceremony | Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa giving a protea to Sisonke National Coordinator Kholi Buthelezi at the launch of the South Africa National Sex Worker HIV Plan.

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Night Rider: Ladies of the Night by

Amy, Contributing Editor

Night shift is a grueling if not the most inconvenient work shift that any person can work. Imagine how difficult it is to be a commercial sex worker who works in the night.

There are many risk factors involved in being a sex worker; working at night contributes to the many risks. Being a sex worker myself, I know firsthand what it is like to be on the street at night. It is a scary feeling. It’s dark, and you have no control over what will happen to you whilst working.

With that said, we call ourselves Night Riders, Ladies of the Night. Sex work is a dangerous profession, and it takes a number of things to be able to work as a sex worker. You need to be brave, alert, and street smart. The best way to work on the street at night is in a group. There is safety in numbers, and the chances of you being attacked are slimmer.

When working at night you need to take some precautions into consideration. For instance, if you get a client with a car, always make sure that you ask whoever you leave behind to take the registration number of that car; this will assist you if you need to lay charges against the client and will make it easier for your peers, too, in the unfortunate case that you go missing. At night clients tend to take advantage, they rape and assault sex workers, so save up some mon-

ey to buy yourself a bottle of pepper spray. Don’t be shy use it when you feel threatened; it might save your life. Always carry your own condoms (male and female) with a packet of wet wipes; this will help you if your client is insisting on not using a condom because he doesn’t have any. Wet wipes come in handy because some clients are not so clean, and you need to wipe them clean before you put the condom on. This will minimize the risk of catching STIs. Being a lady means always being prepared for any situation. Keep in mind the way you carry yourself determines ultimately the way people treat you and the type of people you attract.

Establish relationships with the people around you, they play a major role in your safety whilst working. Give each other advice on how to work safely and share with others your experiences with bad clients that will help you make decisions on how or who to offer your services to without putting yourself at risk.

Like any other profession, sex work is work so treat it like work. You need to work hard and most importantly save your money for rainy days. We all know how difficult those can be on the street.

Beauty Talk With Lady Mya

by Mya

My name is Mya. I am a young fashionable sex worker who greatly believes that beauty goes a long way in attracting clients.

They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and I say beauty is being comfortable in your own skin and being able to express yourself confidently.

In this column we will be exploring

various issues pertinent to beauty.

These range from fashion & make up tips to hair & skin care; to products & brands recommendations.

Look out for some awesome tips on doing evening make up in the forthcoming 2016 issue.

Izwi Lethu Publication | Look for the Izwi Lethu Publication coming out soon for reflections from participants and researchers and highlights of previous issues.

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When Sex Workers March

by Clara, Contributing Editor

One afternoon I was walking in the city of Johannesburg when I met Queen, a sex worker I have known since 2008.

She likes using seasonal movement when doing business, going where she knows that people have money and when the client’s money finished she moves to another place. When I met Queen that day she had bruises all over her body, and I asked her what had happened to her. She told me it was the police who had beaten her up in Mpumalanga for sex working. After a small chat she asked me to join her to go to Mpumalanga because there was too much business there. I said, “Over my dead body! I will never go to Mpumalanga.’’

In January 2011, I was busy playing snooker because the business was very low when Queen walked in the sports club where I was doing sex work business. She had a lot of money with her, and she told me that she was going to Park Station to send some groceries and some furniture home. She told me that she wanted to go with me

to Witbank where she was working.

There was more business than here in Johannesburg. I told her I didn’t have money for transport, but the truth is I didn’t want to leave Johannesburg.

Before she left to send her things home, she promised that she was going to come back for me. When it was around 18:30, I thought she was not coming anymore, and then I saw her walking in the bar. We left for Witbank.

When we had covered almost three quarters of the journey, I was shocked to hear Queen saying that we were now in Mpumalanga province. I didn’t know that Witbank was in Mpumalanga. I thought of the police, and I felt helpless inside the taxi. I couldn’t say much because I didn’t want people to know that we were sex workers.

We arrived in Mpumalanga safely.

Business was so good that after a few days I managed to buy a few clothes from the big shops. I had gone to Mpumalanga with only the clothes I was wearing. Three weeks down the line,

the police came to the guest house where we were booked, beating every girl in sight. Luckily I did not receive the beating because I lied that I was a cleaner at that guest house, but also that did not help when they chose to drive us out of town, forcing us to leave Witbank in the middle of night.

The police drove the six of us sex workers in a taxi. It was winter and very cold that night. They used the highway that goes to Middleburg towards the Mozambique boarder. When they had driven for some kilometres out of town, the police started dropping us off one at a time every four to five kilometres.

We were in the jungle where we would see a car passing only after maybe thirty minutes or more, and we did not even know how we would get back to the guest house. Anyway we had made a plan because other sex workers knew that the police would drop us separately, but the worst part was the police had seized all the phones before they drove us out of town. So the first person dropped went looking for a car to pick up the others. After a few hours we were all back at the guest house, fearing that maybe the police would come back, they did not come back because they thought we were still in the jungle.

From that day I started to see the white police differently. I hated them for harassing sex workers. During that time I did not know that I have a right as a human being to open a case against the police. I was afraid because I was a sex worker, and as a sex worker at that time I felt I did not have a voice. Things changed when sex workers in Witbank decided to go on a march against police brutality. We marched to the police station. A few days after the march to the police station, we went to the ANC offices in Witbank to file a complaint about the police harassment.

Photo: Amy

The police harassment did not make me leave Witbank but made me stronger. After we marched and filed the complainant, the police harassment stopped in Witbank.

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Ask Dear Mastoep

by Dear

Mastoep

Dear Mastoep, I am a young transvestite aged 26. I love cross dressing and experimenting with make-up. I sell my services as a She-male, and it does work for me because I am very feminine and can easily be mistaken for a biological woman. I fell in love with a man who once was a regular client. He used to ask me to be more than a service giver and be his lover. At first I thought it was just a trick for him to get free services, but he would at times give me money and not ask for anything in return.

The problem now is he loves big boobs and he wants me to have implants and I don’t want to. I am comfortable with being recognized as a feminine male.

Having breast implants is not a part of the life that I dream of and I don’t want to lose him either. How best would you advise I handle this dilemma?

Please help.

Tranny Dear Tranny, You say he asked you to be his lover but you don’t say if you took him up on his request. I assume that you are still thinking about it.

Firstly, you speak only about him paying for services or him giving you money. You say absolutely nothing about the two of you doing other things together besides business. Apart from him giving you ‘moola for mahala’ there is nothing that demonstrates that he truly loves you. In my opinion I think he wants to have his bread buttered on both sides.

Secondly, let’s say you have the boob implants and eventually you become yesterdays’ news… You are then stuck with boobies you never really wanted in the first place. You must be comfortable with yourself—you can’t go round pleasing others.

Thirdly, tell him apparently more than a mouthful is a waste and sit him down and tell him how you truly feel about this unreasonable request.

Tell him that ‘If you really love me then I should be enough of a woman for you.’

If not, just go back to doing your normal business my dear.

Mastoep Dear MaSteop I am a female sex worker, and I have an intimate partner whose HIV status I am unaware of. He knows I am a sex worker, and he does not know my HIV status, but he wants us to stop using condoms. I know I am HIV negative but my worry is that he’s so comfortable and confident to have unprotected sex with someone whose status is unknown to him. I always ask myself if it’s just pure love or if he is like most people who have the notion that all sex workers are HIV positive and perhaps he could be positive too. How do I convince him that we need to get tested together without sounding as if I am accusing him of something?

A worried IL reader Hi Worried IL Reader, I assume that because he knows that you are a sex worker, he must be okay with that. You sound like an intelligent girl who takes responsibility for her life. Just like you can’t live on love and fresh air alone, love is also not going to keep you HIV negative but safer sex will. So STAY WISE: CONDOMISE! Go to a clinic close to you that has been sensitized and speak to the staff about ways to get your partner to come to the clinic with you so you could both have the test done together.

There is always strength in numbers.

United we stand, divided we fall. It would probably be less daunting to get it done together even though you know your own status. Remember it is important to have a pre- and post-test counselling session with a trained counsellor once you’ve convinced him of the importance of knowing ones status.

Mastoep

Send your questions! | Dear Mastoep is now on Facebook! Connect with her at Maggie Mastoep or email her at mastoep@gmail.com

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Plastic View, Part 2

by Linda, Contributing Editor

Plastic view is an informal settlement located in Pretoria east. Most of the people staying there are foreigners from Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Malawi. Due to the fact that they don’t have documents, they can’t find work, so they become tsotsies and burglars to survive.

The situation in Plastic View is getting worse by the day. Sex workers’ clients are being harassed by thieves. We tried to talk to the bar owner to employ security guards or anyone who can protect us while we are working but our cries seem to fall on deaf ears. At the beginning of April, police came to meet the community asking if there were some other cases of harassment and other cases and they wanted to know what the community was thinking about these cases and what can be done about it. Some other people said they were tired of these tsotsies who are doing all these bad things and others said they know the people who are stealing from them. The other issue that was raised was the question of what if these tsotsies get arrested and then within some days you see them back in the community. So the residents of Plastic View agreed that if they catch anyone stealing or anyone who killed anyone must also be killed.

Many people were happy about this idea of if you kill anyone you will also be killed the necklace style. The necklace style is whereby people take a tire and put it on your head then burn it together with you.

Some people agreed to this idea, but others did not agree because they know that their relatives are the ones who are killing people and stealing. The other punishment was that if the community catches you, your hands must be cut off. These illegal laws have brought fear to the tsotsies; they are now afraid of stealing from anyone.

The other thing is that there are other locations that are near Plastic View.

These people have been complaining about the people of Plastic View, and they just wish the place be destroyed and the people moved somewhere far because they live in fear. The community also wants all the bars to be closed by midnight. Maybe now Plastic View will be a better place to live.

Photos: Linda

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All is Not Lost

Photo Feature

by Amy, Contributing Editor

by Clara, Contributing Editor

The last thing that one ever wants is to fail at something that they have put their heart and soul into. Being in the sex industry, you learn a few lessons that ultimately determine the kind of lifestyle you choose to live.

Continued from page 1. The Event had a number of envisaged outcomes. At the conference a presenter from Botswana said we need to do things based on evidence—like in our Izwi Lethu newsletter all that is written is based on the truth. Continued on page 11.

In commercial sex work there are plenty of challenges that you face on a daily basis. My challenge was drugs and alcohol. It is something very common amongst sex workers. I went into the sex industry with a goal to earn enough money to go back to school, but the plan did not work out as I thought it would. I became distracted, and pretty soon I lost focus on my dream. I was consumed by my addiction.

On a sunny Saturday afternoon, I was getting ready to go out, and I decided to have a glass of whiskey. One glass became four glasses, and soon I was drunk on the couch. I could not go out to work that day because I was too drunk. This became a routine, and I was working less. I could not afford my habit anymore, so I decided to take a break from drinking. I was struggling to find clients, and my dream seemed to be fading away. I met a friend who told me about Sisonke and SWEAT. She invited me to a creative space meeting.

I attended these meetings regularly; the meetings were therapeutic. I was able to share my experiences with people who understood the kind of challenges I was facing. I found a job as a peer educator, and my dream seems possible now.

Now I see that all is not lost. If I put my heart and soul into it, I will be able to save enough money to go back to school.

Reporting from the conference | Activities at the Sex Worker Learning and Sharing Event, Johannesburg, South Africa, April 2016.

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Gavin's Corner

by Gavin, Sisonke

National Reporter

Dear Readers, It’s been six months since we last spoke. So much has happened since November 2015. Firstly, Congratulations to the Sex Worker Technical Taskforce Working Group (SWTTWG) that worked so fervently with SANAC, Provincial and National Government departments, the International Development Partners, and the country’s top researchers and experts on HIV/Aids, TB, and STIs to realise the fruition of the South African National Sex Worker HIV Plan 20162019 (NSP).

On the 11th of March 2016, we saw the launch of the NSP, which was attended by sex workers from all over South Africa. In his opening speech, the honourable Deputy President, Mr. Cyril Ramaphosa, said, “sex work is essentially work.” This is a big step for government to make such a bold statement and will aid us in realising our ultimate goal, which is the DECRIMINALISATION of SEX WORK. Copies of both the Intergrated Biomedical Behavioural Survey (IBBS) Report and the NSP Launch can be found here: sanac.org.za/category/publications/reports/ In December last year I joined the SWEAT Advocacy Unit Manager, Ishtar Lakani, in attending a Consultative Forum for Civil Society Organisations (CSO) meeting that was hosted by Nacosa. We had the opportunity to meet with Dr. Dubravka Šimonović, UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, to whom we were able to report the human rights violations that are being perpetrated against sex workers in South Africa. In her closing remarks, she stated that she was busy compiling what she deemed a ‘priority issues’ report that was too be given to SA government officials for follow up.

The International Day of Non-Violence Against Sex Workers, which is traditionally commemorated on the 17th of December annually was held on the 10th of December last year due to

the fact that all our offices were closing for the December holiday. Nationally all provinces started the event at exactly 11h30 that morning, and a moment of silence was observed across the country. Cape Town had a joint creative space of MSM, FSW and the TG together at the Woodstock Town Hall. The event was MC-ed by the now famous Gita November (exVredenburg) and Chuma. Members from Paarl provided the entertainment under the very capable direction of Constance Mathe, who is the new Asijiki Co-ordinator. A special thank you to all of them for all their hard work.

From the 15th to 19th of February 2016, we had a meeting at the Coastlands Hotel in Durban, titled, ‘Strengthening our Movement + Sector’. All nine provinces were represented. Mr. Lebowa Malaka, Key Populations Manager at SANAC, gave an update on the registration process, but because a lot of sex workers did not really understand all the finer aspects of this process it was decided to call another meeting. At this meeting, which took place at Gender Links in Gauteng from the 21st to 22nd of April 2016, it was

explained in finer detail why we took the decisions we did. An independent consultant who is also one of the non-sex worker board members, Mr. Keith Mienies, explained what the best way forward for Sisonke would be. It was decided to go with the non-profit organisation (NPO) option and simultaneously register as a non-profit company (NPC) as well. This enables us to apply for funding from both government and also from external sources.

Until next time, be SAFE and don’t forget push for DECRIM. to be added onto all agendas of meetings you attend.

Kind Regards from a now wintery cold Cape Town.

Gavin x

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Know Your Izwi Lethu Team

by Linda, Contributing Editor

Tanaka is the Editor in Chief of Izwi Lethu. Our readers might want to know more about him, so I asked him for an interview. He was happy to take some time of his demanding schedule to have a chat with me.

Linda: Hello Tanaka. How are you doing?

Tanaka: Hey Linda! I’m well thanks, and I trust you are doing great, too.

Linda: I’m good, thanks. Tanaka, could you please tell us where you are originally from.

Tanaka: I was born and raised in Harare, Zimbabwe.

Linda: When did you come to South Africa and what made you migrate?

Tanaka: Well it’s a very long story, but to cut it short. I needed to grow as an independent adult away from parents.

This was also a defining moment in my life, to see how well I would do without constant monitoring.

Linda: How did you manage to survive in a foreign land? Where you all by yourself or you had relatives here?

Tanaka: I came all by myself and there was no relative of mine in South Africa that I could reach out to. I was fortunate enough to meet a friend of a friend who was kind enough to shelter me. At that time I survived on piecemeal work.

Linda: Izwi Lethu is run by sex workers.

Are you a sex worker?

Tanaka: Yes I am. I practice sex work after my day’s work and over weekends.

Linda: What are the challenges you are faced with as the Editor in Chief of Izwi Lethu?

Tanaka: Working on a publication is a challenge on its own, but I enjoy every moment of it. There is nothing in particular that I can point out to be a challenge.

Linda: You are a very active Sisonke member—often behind the scenes, but your work doesn’t go unnoticed. When did you join the movement?

Tanaka: Thank you for the kind words.

I became an active Sisonke member in 2010 and formally joined as a paying member in 2011.

Linda: This one is for your secret admirers. Are you married?

Tanaka: I’m still single, Linda. Not even any prospects. [giggles] Linda: Do you see yourself getting married one day?

Tanaka: Well I guess time will tell. I’m open to marriage, and if it doesn’t happen I will still be okay.

Linda: Do you feel comfortable in your own skin?

Tanaka: I have my days. At times I feel like I exude glamour, and at times I feel like an old rag.

Linda: I know you are a good singer.

What’s your favorite song?

Tanaka: I’m a huge music fan of music, and I have too many songs that I love, but my favorite right now is a song by Mahalia Buchanan entitled “Heal me”.

Linda: Name two influential people that you wish to see reading Izwi Lethu?

Tanaka: Advocate Thuli Madonsela (SA National Prosecutor) and Dr Aaron Motswaledi (SA Minister of Health).

Linda: Which Izwi Lethu column is your favorite and why?

Tanaka: All of them because all columns complement each other.

Photos: Tanaka Photos from the office | Scenes from a misty Joburg.

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Kholi's Desk

by Kholi, Contributing Editor

Dear Izwi Lethu Readers, Since I last spoke to all of you so much has transpired. So I’ll tell you about my trip to New York for the book launch of To Live Freely in This World: Sex Worker Activism in Africa by Chi Adanna Mgbako.

Initially, I was meant to fly out on 24 January 2016 but due to blizzards in New York, I only left a day later. On arrival I was immediately taken to Fordham Law School for the book launch that was moderated by Prof.

Clare Hunnington. The following day we went for a media outreach and prepared for a Human Rights seminar course. Friday the 29 th , I attended a book event at the Sex Worker Project of the Urban Justice Centre that was moderated by Sienna Baskin.

Travelling to Boston by train, I then attended a book event at the Harvard Law School hosted by the Harvard Human Rights Program and return to New York shortly after that to attend-

ed another book launch, this time at the Institute for Study of Human Rights at Columbia University and returned to Cape Town on Saturday the 6 th of February.

To Live Freely in this World gave us an opportunity to tell the general public our experiences and our struggles without these stories being convoluted by a ‘middleman’ to suit their own needs.

Sex workers are often incorrectly viewed as vectors of disease, and it was an opportunity to set the record straight by explaining that we are a key population that is more vulnerable to HIV because of the criminalisation of sex work.

The book highlights intersectionality with a strong focus on transgender female sex workers and the abuse that they often endure.

It also dispels the myths that sex workers in the global south (the

southern hemisphere especially developing countries) are being dominated by ‘white-western’ privileged women.

The book explores the important roles of the intersectional movement building between LGBTIQ and sex work activists, as well as the collaborations amon sex worker, harm reduction, human rights, anti-poverty, and labour rights activities. It looks at methodologies and activism of the sex worker movement, including direct service provision in the form of health and legal outreach, and engagement in the public sensitisation through protest marches, dramas, and media advocacy.

Due to the incredible diversity of the sex worker groups we need to do a better job of reaching out to under-represented groups including queer identified woman, non-queer identified men, online sex workers, and people who engage in transactional sexual relationships in order to continue to nurture a ‘big-tent’ mentality of movement building due to the fact that everyone always thinks it’s only females that are sex workers.

My trip also provided an opportunity to explain the difference between legalisation and decriminalisation enabling us to lobby our campaign on an international platform.

Until next time, keep well and God Bless.

Kholi x

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Photo Feature

by Clara, Contributing Editor

Continued from page 7. On what I want

the government to do for us as sex workers, I personally asked the organisations to teach police officers on adherence to medication because they detain people including sex workers who are on medication and they do not access their medication when detained.

Reporting from the conference | Activities at the Sex Worker Learning and Sharing Event, Johannesburg, South Africa, April 2016.

Guest Column: What I learned from Research with Sex Workers

by Duduzile

Ndlovu

What is a woman like me doing going to work with sex workers?

I had just completed my MA and a fabulous work opportunity came up to work on research to do with sex work. I had never thought about what it means to do sex work. I had researched gender-based violence before. While there were moments I had to reflect on my religious beliefs with regard to issues like divorce, I had never felt conflicted that my work contradicted my beliefs.

But like anything else in life, we face moments for growth. Working on the World Cup and sex work research project became one such opportunity for me.

I learnt after the first day of meeting with women who sell sex that they were women with different

backgrounds and outlooks on life.

They were not just sex workers just like I was not just a researcher, but they were mothers, daughters, aunties with dreams and aspirations.

I also learnt that women who sell sex come in all shapes and sizes.

You cannot tell by just looking at her what kind of work she does to make a living or feed her children and sometimes extended family and kin.

My lesson on that first day was that I had this idea of what a sex worker is.

It was a stereotypical and very judgemental view influenced by the media and what I had heard. I had never actually met a woman who makes a living from selling sex.

As the project continued and I built relationships with many women, I came to know them and realised my place was not to impose what I

thought was right or wrong. Instead spending time with women who sell sex made me realise how we have dehumanised them. We have lost view of the many other facets of their lives and zoomed into the way they make a living. This makes it easy for us to ignore when an injustice is done to them. This makes it easy for us to ignore when their livelihood is considered illegal. I grew as a person and realised I needed to work on that project to meet the amazing women and shatter the preconceived ideas I had held about who they were.

Duduzile Ndlovu is a PhD Fellow at the African Centre for Migration & Society at the University of the Witwatersrand.

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Health Column: PrEP for HIV Negative Sex Workers

by Gavin,

Sisonke National Reporter

At the launch of the South African National Strategic HIV Plan for Sex, Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the National Dept. of Health would soon offer Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP)—medication that prevents HIV negative people from becoming infected—to all HIV negative sex workers.

There are still many issues relating to the roll-out that I feel need to be worked out beforehand such as what happens if you are arrested on a Friday and you have to ask the police to provide you with your ARVs or PrEP? As PrEP will only first be available for sex workers, would you then not be outing yourself and indirectly admitting that you are a sex worker?

Another question I have is: has the staff from the various Provincial Health Departments been informed, educated or even sensitised around PrEP and Sex Workers or even the needs of key populations?

According to a guideline that was issued by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2015 on when to start ARV’s and on PrEP for HIV, twelve trials were conducted about the effectiveness of oral PrEP among serodiscordant couples (where one partner is HIV positive and the other HIV negative), heterosexual men, women, men who have sex with men, people who inject drugs, and transgender women.

This new recommendation replaced the previous ones on PrEP and enables the offer of PrEP to be considered for people at substantial risk of acquiring HIV rather than limiting the recommendation to specific populations. This new recommendation will allow for a wider range of populations including sex workers to benefit from this additional prevention option.

In 2012, WHO recommended PrEP to be used among serodiscordant couples, men who have sex with men, and transgender people on the basis that demonstration projects were needed to ascertain optimal delivery approaches and then in 2014 WHO then developed consolidated HIV guidelines for key populations including people in prisons and other closed settings.

Watch this column for more on PrEP in the next issue!

Sisonke Sex Worker Movement

Sisonke Sex Worker Movement, lauched in 2003, is South Africa’s only sex worker movemet run by sex workers for sex workers. Sisonke aims to unite sex workers, improve living and working conditions, fight for equal access to rights, and avocate for the deciminalisation of sex work in South Africa.

Izwi Lethu is a collaboration between Sisonke Sex Workers Movement and ACMS’s MoVE Project.

Check out methodsvisualexplore.tumblr.com for extended articles, audio recordings of writers reading their stories, and many more pictures.

Download all past issues of Izwi Lethu from issuu.com/move.methods.visual.explore