Marlise Richter
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/ 19 March 2008

Of kite flying and sex work

The Sexual Offences Act of 1957 prohibits sex work. It has its roots in the archaic Immorality Act, which outlawed same-sex relationships and relationships between black and white. Yet the Sexual Offences Act is seldom used to prosecute sex workers — probably because it is hard to catch someone in the sex act and to prove it was for financial gain.

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/ 7 August 2007

Blood, sweat and tears

It’s taken tears, anger, demonstrations, speeches and prayers. It’s taken court battles and HIV+ T-shirts worn with pride. But Aids advocacy and activism have taken a momentous path in the past few years. It was only five years ago that the Johannesburg General Hospital decided to close its HIV clinic.

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/ 9 December 2005

A new feminism

I am perplexed. In the past few years, I have grappled with why the post-1996 women’s movement (in whatever way one wants to define it) has not taken up HIV/Aids in South Africa as a flaming, life-and-death issue. If women’s voices had been heard more loudly and coherently they might have responded to the Aids crisis with urgency and wisdom.