Calls grow for sex work legalisation

For Solastica Goases, the day begins at 22h00 when the city goes to sleep.

She dons a skintight dress and heels and hits the streets of Katutura.

Goases, who is originally from Walvis Bay, told The Namibian she turned to sex work to feed her three children.
“Sex work is work, this how I make my money just like any other profession – the only difference is that I use my body,” she says.

She has received threats from clients and endured emotional and physical abuse from gangsters, pimps and police officers, who she says try to profit from sex workers and steal her money.

She recalls an incident when a client drove her to Daan Viljoen Dam and then refused to pay, leaving her naked far from home.

“I had to walk back to Windhoek naked. I made a top and skirt from plastic,” she says.

Despite reporting the incident to the police, she alleges that the police humiliated her and called her names.

Goases says her children face harassment, stigma and even endangerment because of her work.

“Clients sometimes threaten my children when they refuse to pay me, they also watch when these clients beat me up,” she says. Despite this, she needs to bring clients home as hotels and guesthouses are too expensive.

A transgender sex worker, Cleopatra Naobes says she turned to sex work in high school, when she was forced to leave home after she came out to her family.

“I had to turn to living in the streets to make ends meet,” she says.

Naobes, who was only 17 years old at the time, says she lived on rice and tinned fish, and developed addictions to drugs and alcohol to endure her circumstances.

She says after finishing school and her homework, she would head to the red light district where she and other sex workers would be harassed by police officers for soliciting in municipal areas.

“That was my routine until I found that I can acquire clients through social media and dating apps,” she says.

However, Naobes says technology comes with its own problems, such as revenge porn and blackmail.

REGULATE SEX WORK

Lawyer Kadhila Amoomo has called for regulatory laws in Namibia given how many young people engage in sex work due to financial hardship.

“Prostitution remains illegal in Namibia, yet the reality is that many young men and women engage in it, often in secrecy and perhaps not in the traditional manner,” he said in a post on social media.

Amoomo said turning a blind eye to the industry drives it underground, increasing risks for both sex workers and the public.

He added that if regulated, the government could enforce safety measures that reduce violence against sex workers while protecting citizens from human trafficking and drug abuse.

Legal regulation would also improve public health as sex workers could access regular health screenings, access comprehensive sex education and lower rates of sexually-transmitted infections.

“When sex work is unregulated, clients and workers alike take greater health risks.”

Amoomo said a legal framework would also allow authorities to crack down on trafficking while ensuring that only consenting adults participate in the industry.

NOT OUR BUSINESS

Human rights lawyer Norman Tjombe agrees that prosecuting sex workers is a violation of their human rights.

“Using the means of the state to hunt down people engaging in activities of a personal nature are matters to be left in the Calvinist apartheid era.”

He explains that engaging in sexual activities for payment is actually not illegal in Namibia, but the conduct around sex work is criminalised under the Combating of Immoral Practices Act.

“Generally, the clients of sex workers are not prosecuted, but only the sex workers under the Combating of Immoral Practices Act of 1980, thus creating an unfair situation against sex workers.”

Tjombe says decriminalising sex work would alleviate the fear of exposure that presently inhibits sex workers and their clients from seeking medical assistance.

He adds that the practice of paying for sex, or receiving payment in exchange for sex, is an innately personal and moral matter that deals with human rights on an individual level.

HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUE

Human rights activists Mama Africa cautions against regulating sex work without protecting the rights of sex workers.

“If they legalise it and give sex workers limited rights, they would still regulate; they would tell sex workers to only trade in certain areas,” she says.

She added that decriminalising sex work would protect minors, encourage participation in trade unions and social security scheemes, and limit police harassment or abuses of power by the police.

Phil ya Nangoloh from human rights organisation NamRights says forcing sex workers to operate in often dangerous and unsafe conditions violates their human rights.

“They are compelled to perform their work under unsafe conditions or places, and this exposes sex workers to life-threatening situations which this endangers their very right to life, security of person and privacy,” he says.

He calls for parliament to pass laws providing personal safety, welfare and the right to dignity for sex workers.

ADDRESS VIOLATIONS

Human rights activist Linda Baumann calls for a well-structured regulatory system with strong enforcement and clear protections for trafficking victims to ensure the safety and rights of sex workers.

“If regulations disproportionately target vulnerable individuals or leave loopholes unaddressed, traffickers might exploit these weaknesses or push victims into unregulated sectors,” she says.

Baumann adds that socio-economic challenges such as poverty and unemployment push individuals into sex work, and discrimination limits their ability to access formal employment, adding that transgender and male sex workers are particularly vulnerable to violence and abuse.

“To protect consenting adult workers, laws should focus on decriminalising sex work, regulating safe working conditions, and criminalising exploitation and coercion,” she says.

Namibia is home to the Right to Work for Sex Workers Movement and the Right to Rehabilitation Movement, which both receive formal support from the Namibian government and address the range of human rights violations sex workers face, including police harassment, extortion and abuse, largely due to the criminalisation of their work.

“Addressing these violations requires legal reforms, the decriminalisation of sex work, and efforts to reduce stigma to improve access to services and protection,” says Baumann.