Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, Former Deputy Minister of Health and Founder of Cape Town-based NPO Embrace Dignity, spoke out today on behalf of her organisation regarding the Sunday 24 March fatal stabbing of Ayanda Denge in her room at Ahmed Kathrada House.
Denge, who identified as a trans woman, came to live at Ahmed Kathrada House after finding herself living on the street. Denge had been a prostituted womxn* for many years. A poet and survivor of the sex trade, Denge fought for many years for the rights of prostituted and transgender people.
Comments Madlala-Routledge: “Embrace Dignity is very sad to hear of the tragic death of our friend and colleague Ayanda Denge on Sunday the 24th of March 2019.”
“A former sex trade survivor and trans woman, Denge had a vision of a world that embraces all marginalised people,” she adds. “She was elected a house leader at Ahmed Kathrada House under one month ago in a bid to lead the struggle for decent well-lit, well-located housing.”
“We will continue with her struggle for the rights of transgender people and all others who are exploited and oppressed by the system of prostitution,” Madlala-Routledge continues. “We will also continue working to ensure that the law in South Africa is reformed to bring an end to this patriarchal form of oppression. We will continue to seek justice for all women and men killed in the system of prostitution, including Siam Lee who was allegedly killed and burned to death by a sex buyer,” she adds.
On her past role as a ‘sex work’ activist, Denge had this to say:
“During the first meeting at SWEAT, I saw many faces I recognised. It was a relief. I felt connected at last. They talked about total decriminalization of prostitution – a model that is used in New Zealand. People in prostitution are decriminalized, but so too are pimps, brothel-owners and sex buyers. They said we would be safe from the police if the sex trade was decriminalized.
At the same time, that sounded like a very attractive proposition, so I became a mobilizer and outreach co-ordinator for SWEAT. I worked there for about a year and a half, distributing condoms and lubricants on the streets and receiving a stipend. Later, I became Acting Chair of the Board of SWEAT Cape Town for three months.
As time went on, I started asking myself about the pipeline to prostitution and how it was never-ending. Something wasn’t connecting anymore. I began to feel that we were spoon-fed and indoctrinated by white privileged academics who had no knowledge of what the inhumane working conditions we had to experience were really like.
I started comparing who was in leadership, who was on the streets, who was developing the messaging of ‘sex work’, and how funds were being used. SWEAT only gave us one sex trade policy model to consider – full decriminalization. They kept insisting that ‘sex work’ was an employment package.
When I read more about the different legal frameworks, I realised that SWEAT had never given us an overview of other approaches.”
Denge called on the government to pass the Equality Law. She said, “I am now 36. My wish is to lead a trans movement across South Africa and beyond, which aims to abolish the sex trade. I want to write a book about my journey. I want change. I want the free and fair South Africa for which Nelson Mandela fought. I want the South African government to decriminalize and provide support to people in prostitution, but make buying sex illegal and include exit programmes or alternative employment opportunities. This is known as the Nordic Model or the Equality Model of sex trade policy, which has already been successful in several European countries and in Canada. That’s the only way people like me will be able to find our way out.”
Describing her daily circumstances, Denge was quoted as saying:
“The streets were dangerous and my journey in prostitution included sleeping in abandoned buildings and being raped by gangsters of the organised criminal networks. Every day you were being caught in a spider web of danger. I was high most of the time and was always desperate for money to support my drug habit. On the outside I seemed happy, but inside I was broken, alone and fragile.”
In the words of Babalwa Phuthumo, a leader of the Gauteng branch of Kwanele, who shared her pain on hearing of Ayanda’s death:
“I’m at a loss for words. Gender-based or hate-perpetrated / ‘corrective’ crime. Let’s continue to make noise cz the sad truth is that prostitution is a recipe and an attraction for many, many other crimes. In fact, it’s a gateway to gender-based violence! This made me shed a tear or two. I did not know that Ayanda wanted to ‘undo the damage as well’ by standing in unison with us and saying prostitution is barbaric, circumstantial and never is or would ever be ‘work’.”
Denge will be laid to rest in Gugulethu, Cape Town on Saturday, 6 April 2019. Denge’s poetry can be viewed at https://ayandadenge.weebly.com/poems.html
A 7 February 2018 interview between Denge and Women in the World can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6ywlomS1N4
Victims of prostitution can contact KWANELE on telephone / WhatsApp or SMS +27 (0)87 095 3086 or e-mail info@embracedignity.co.za