Sex Work; Reform Initiatives and HIV/AIDS in Inner-City Johannesburg

ABSTRACT

The on-going criminalisation of sex work in South Africa; concurrent sexual partnerships; socio-economic vulnerability; migrant status and gender-based violence intensify sex workers' risk of contracting HIV. These factors combine to restrict the skills; ability and resources of sex workers to negotiate safer sex and to access HIV prevention; treatment and healthcare services. The paper situates the living and working conditions of sex workers in Hillbrow; an inner-city area of Johannesburg; within the South African legal context; especially in regard to current law reform initiatives regarding sex work; as well as the increasing anxiety about the influx of (sex) tourists during the 2010 FIFA World Cup. In addition; the paper describes an intervention by the Reproductive Health et HIV Research Unit at the University of the Witwatersrand; Johannesburg; an innovator in providing mobile healthcare services and education to hotel-based sex workers in Hillbrow. The paper contends that a legal-rights-approach to HIV risk and vulnerability; together with powerful public health considerations; render decriminalisation an imperative response to sex workers' material conditions