This week's resolution by  the ANC to apparently fully decriminalise not only those who are sold for sex, but also pimps, brothel-keepers and buyers, is a horrifying thought and goes against the growing global trend.
As a sex-trade survivor I know that the experience of being in prostitution is always destructive. Despite efforts to normalise it and supposedly reduce "harm", there is no way to make it safe. Violence is an inherent part of it and is carried out by pimps, traffickers, brothel-keepers and buyers.
Those people (overwhelmingly women) who experience the brunt of it are more often than not from a less-privileged background. I have yet to meet a single woman whose entry into the sex trade was not spurred by some form of socioeconomic desperation.In South Africa this is exacerbated by the fact that almost all those sold for sex are black. Racism is perpetuated by apartheid. In prostitution black women are considered to be objects that can be used for sexual gratification by white men.
There are two schools of thought on what is the best policy on prostitution. Sex-trade survivors and women's groups want what is called the equality model. This approach, which has been successful in Scandinavia, Ireland, France and Canada, is based on the concept that we cannot reach equality as long as the highly sexist and violent sex trade continues to exist. It proposes decriminalising and supporting women in prostitution, while criminalising pimping, brothel-keeping and buying sex.
International organisations such as Amnesty International, which do not focus on gender equality - or those which are coerced because of funding issues - often support the alternative position of not only decriminalising those selling sex, but also pimps, brothel-keepers and buyers.
Some high-profile South African individuals, such as retired Justice Zak Yacoob, have also called for full decriminalisation, but this argument means that those of us who were sold for sex cannot enjoy equal human rights...