Sex Work Or Exploitation?

The conversations about prostitution and human trafficking of women and children at the hands of men, are often had without males being in the room. Ronny Rammutla, co-founder of Men Against Prostitution and Trafficking of Women (MAPTOW, which advocates for the Equality Model, weighs in on the issue.

- Greta Wilson And Thabo Tshelane

“My fellow men, let’s keep our valuables in our trousers and use them for the good of humanity. Yes, I mean our wallets.” These are the words of Ronny Rammutla, co-founder of Men Against Prostitution and Trafficking of Women (MAPTOW), which advocates for the Equality Model. He was urging men to forge a united front against ‘sexpreneurs’ by signing the Coalition of Abolition of Prostitution in Africa (CAPA) Charter during Women’s Month in August.

Ronny co-founded MAPTOW in early 2018 along with Jeremy Routledge, deputy director of Embrace Dignity. MAPTOW is a founder signatory to the CAPA Charter, launched in Cape Town on June 2019.

“No nation can be free until its women are free,” he adds. “South African women and girl-children are still trapped in poverty, and prostitution will never be a sustainable or life-affirming solution to this poverty. Prostitution is, in fact, a form of oppression in itself,” says Ronny (pictured).

MAPTOW stands firm against the decriminalization of men who buy sex and those who sell women and girls for sex. It is the demand that pushes trafficking and/or what you would call supply. The association opposes bail for any man accused of violating women’s rights.

“It truly boggles the mind, the degree to which South African men are in denial about the impact of the system of prostitution and their role in the patriarchal system responsible for putting women there in the first place.