Originally from the low-income suburb of Wentworth, south of Durban, Pinky struggled to find the words to express herself and was hardly able to contain her emotions when she began detailing the circumstances surrounding her life in prostitution. She told TimesLIVE that she began life as a prostitute at 18 and could not recall the number of men she had slept with, only that it was well into the hundreds. Pinky said her two brothers and parents, who are pensioners, were unaware of her double life, and that an incident in her upbringing pushed her in the direction of prostitution.
No one in my family knows, and they don't know what I do for a living. I keep it a secret. I just take my treatment. Some of my clients request not to use a condom but I tell them that it's for their own safety and they have to use it.
She was speaking following the appearance of a year-old businessman who is accused of the brutal murder of Durban escort Siam Lee in January Showing support for slain Lee, Pinky gathered outside the Durban High Court with about 50 members of the survivor-led movement, Kwanele, who have called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to provide clarity around the possible decriminalisation of sex work in the country.
In their letter, they said: "Dear Mr President, as women with first-hand experience of being prostituted in South Africa, we, the movement of the survivors of the system of prostitution β predominantly poor black women from disadvantaged backgrounds β wish to express our shock, concern and disappointment at your recent support of the full decriminalisation of the sex trade at the opening of the newly built court in Johannesburg.
However, we do not feel that our viewpoint has been clearly heard," they continue. However, we have yet to receive a response," they stated. One of its two key policy recommendations was that SA follows the "Nordic" or "Equality Model", which has been successful in ending the exploitative systems of prostitution. Kwanele founder Mickey Meji said she could empathise with Pinky because she had once been a prostitute herself.
