Mbuyiseni Ndlozi defends Naledi Chirwa, slams discrimination against sex work

*Ed's note: This article previously reported incorrectly on Naledi Chirwa nationality. The information has been corrected. TimesLIVE apologises unconditionally. 

The EFF's Mbuyiseni Ndlozi has come to party member Naledi Chirwa's defence over her comments on decriminalising sex work.

This week, Chirwa shared a video engaging with a sex worker, Zodwa, on addressing challenges faced by sex workers in SA.

In the interview, Chirwa bemoaned that poor black sex workers were being harassed by the authorities and community members.

Chirwa called for change, saying sex work should be recognised as a job and that SA should rid itself of the stigma.

However, many social media users were against her views, saying that Chirwa was promoting prostitution as a way of creating jobs in SA.

In a xenophobic turn of events, social media users said the EFF was a party of foreigners.

“Nigerians pimps in Hillbrow, Sunnyside, Berea, Yeoville, Kempton Park, Benoni, Springs must be smiling at Naledi Chirwa's proposal that prostitution must be decriminalised,” said one user.

“These are jobs the EFF say must be done by South Africans, prostitution. All other jobs must be done by foreign nationals. South Africans must do prostitution. These are results of having foreigners as a member of parliament,” said another.

Defending Chirwa, Ndlozi said she was speaking on the behalf of the EFF and that the party is pursuing decriminalisation of prostitution.

“No-one must be imprisoned for taking money for sex. If you have a Christian problem about this, take note, adultery is also a sin, but those who cheat on their wives never get imprisoned,” said Nldozi.

“You don’t have to believe in sex work/prostitution to agree that it must not be a criminal act like theft, murder, rape and so on. You can still believe sex work is immoral, just like you believe adultery is immoral. But no-one goes to prison for cheating on their wives or husbands.”

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Nldozi continued to reference the Bible in his argument, saying “the problem with prostitution is precisely what Jesus encountered”. 

“It's precisely what Jesus encountered in John 8 with a woman who was found in the very act of adultery. They dragged her and left the man she was sleeping with. Each day society stones women who sell sex, but not the men who buy it. Bloody hypocrites,” he said.

Ndlozi compared “Mavuso” (money paid to a woman after spending the night with a man) to sex work, saying “calling it 'Mavuso' doesn’t make it more decent”. 

Ndlozi also clapped back hard at trolls for insulting Chirwa.